Authority Figures Quotes

• My only purpose is to teach children to rebel against authority figures.

  Sherman Alexie

  Children, Rebel, Purpose

  Interview with Rob Capriccioso, www.identitytheory.com. March 23, 2003.

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• Authority figures are so irritating. Because they always tell you to do things for reasons that aren't very good. That sums up what authority is about for me.

  Rupert Everett

  Reason, Authority, Figures

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• People are so afraid of authority figures and doctors are authority figures.

  Martha Beck

  Doctors, People, Medical

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• 

  Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Life Changing, Epic, Power

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• Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.

  Thomas Huxley

  Education, Knowledge, Authority And Power

  Thomas Henry Huxley, Cyril Bibby (1971). “T. H. Huxley on Education”, p.72, Cambridge University Press

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• I had to take responsibility, even if it meant saying no to an authority figure, because I was the authority on me.

  Kelley Armstrong

  Responsibility, Saying No, Authority

  Kelley Armstrong (2010). “The Reckoning: The Darkest Powers Trilogy”, p.108, Penguin Group

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• Authority figures always attract trouble

  J. K. Rowling

  Trouble, Authority, Figures

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• Listen to authority figures because of their position, but only believe them if they can explain why.

  Tucker Max

  Believe, Authority, Figures

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• One of the important lessons I learned from my parents is always to respect authority figures like teachers.

  Georges St-Pierre

  Teacher, Mma, Parent

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• The kind of "blind obedience" once theologized as the ultimate step to holiness, is itself blind. It blinds a person to the insights and foresight and moral perspective of anyone other than an authority figure.

  Joan D. Chittister

  Perspective, Holiness, Steps

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• There have, for years, been comparative studies of religious fanaticism and factors that correlate with it. By and large, it tends to decline with increasing industrialization and education. The US, however, is off the chart, ranking near devastated peasant societies. About 1/2 the population believe the world was created a few thousand years ago: the justification for the belief is that that is what they were ordered to believe by authority figures to whom they were taught one must subordinate oneself. And on, and on.

  Noam Chomsky

  Religious, Believe, Years

  Source: chomsky.info

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• It can be tempting to blame others for our loss of direction. We get lots of information about life but little education in life from parents, teachers, and other authority figures who should know better from their experience. Information is about facts. Education is about wisdom and the knowledge of how to love and survive.

  Bernie Siegel

  Education, Teacher, Loss

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• The pressure to conform to an authority figure or peer group can cause people to behave in shocking ways.

  Mike Lofgren

  Evil, People, Peers

  Mike Lofgren (2012). “The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted”, p.120, Penguin

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• Mark Twain is a universe, and he is also a kind of American authority figure. He can say things to America that other people can't say, in a way that can truly be heard.

  Val Kilmer

  America, People, Way

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• When I was a kid, my parents smartly raised us to keep quiet, be respectful to older people, and generally not question adults all that much. I think that's because they were assuming that 99 percent of the time, we'd be interacting with worthy, smart adults... They didn't ever tell me 'Sometimes you will meet idiots who are technically adults and authority figures. You don't have to do what they say.

  Mindy Kaling

  Smart, Kids, Thinking

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• Children have a remarkable talent for not taking the adult world with the kind of respect we are so confident it ought to be given. To the irritation of authority figures of all sorts, children expend considerable energy in "clowning around." They refuse to appreciate the gravity of our monumental concerns, while we forget that if we were to become more like children our concerns might not be so monumental.

  Conrad Hyers

  Family, Children, Irritation

  Conrad Hyers (2003). “The Comic Vision and the Christian Faith: A Celebration of Life and Laughter”, p.79, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• I obviously identify with the anti-authority figure. I've pretty much always had problems with authority, ever since I was a kid.

  Denis Leary

  Kids, Problem, Authority

  Interview with Tasha Robinson, www.avclub.com. June 22, 2005.

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• Our parents, our tribesman, our authority figures, clearly expect us to be bad or anti-social or greedy or selfish or dirty or destructive or self-destructive. Our social nature is such that we tend to meet the expectations of our elders. Whenever this reversal took place and our elders stopped expecting us to be social and expected us to be anti-social, just to put it in gross terms, that's when the real fall took place. And we're paying for it dearly.

  Jean Liedloff

  Real, Selfish, Fall

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• I obviously identify with the anti-authority figure. I've pretty much always had problems with authority, ever since I was a kid. But, yeah, it's not identifying, I think it's more a part of my natural DNA that I question anybody who has a plan. Everybody's got to have an angle; that's the way I grew up.

  Denis Leary

  Kids, Thinking, Dna

  Interview with Tasha Robinson, www.avclub.com. June 22, 2005.

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• All I'm being offered now are parts that are authority figures. I've done that. And that's not what I want. I want something different.

  Yaphet Kotto

  Want Something, Different, Done

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• ...There are also those who inadvertently grant power to another man's words by continuously trying to spite him. If a man gets to the point where he can simply say, 'The sky is blue,' and people indignantly rush up trying to refute him saying, 'No, the sky is light blue,' then, whether they realize it or not, he has become an authority figure even to such adversaries.

  Criss Jami

  Leadership, Men, Light

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• You do not know me, but I am a juvenile delinquent. I do not trust authority figures, I probably will not graduate from high school, and statistics say my present rowdiness and vandalism will likely lead to more serious crimes. I am a dangerous fellow, and I am causing mayhem in this store. [...] There. I have now shamelessly destroyed the symmetry of this shelf, undoing hours of labor by underpaid store employees. If you could see me, you would be frightened.

  Katherine Applegate

  School, Would Be, Statistics

  "The Diversion". Book by K. A. Applegate, 2001.

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• If every day of your life you are told by authority figures that the Earth is flat, you will be scared of falling off the edge whether you want to be or not.

  Mark Rippetoe

  Fall, Earth, Want

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• Find your true path. It’s so easy to become someone we don’t want to be, without even realizing it’s happening. We are created by the choices we make every day. And if we take action in order to please some authority figure, we’ll suddenly wake up down the road and say, “This isn’t me. I never wanted to be this person.

  Richard Carlson

  Order, Choices, Wake Up

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• Despite their tremendous talent, (NBA players) are still, by and large, young adults, seeking validation from an authority figure, and there is no greater authority figure on a team than the coach. Needless to say, in today's warped, self-indulgent climate, too many players couldn't care less about appeasing the coach.

  Phil Jackson

  Team, Player, Nba

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