Authority Quotes

• Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.

  Thomas Jefferson

  People, Responsible, Self-government

  Thomas Jefferson, H. A. Washington (2011). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private”, p.32, Cambridge University Press

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  It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Leadership, Patriotic, Independent

  269 Copy quote

• Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Spiritual, Atheist

  185 Copy quote

• Nothing is more gratifying to the mind of man than power or dominion.

  Joseph Addison

  Christian, Men, Mind

  Joseph Addison, Richard Hurd (1811). “The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, a New Ed., with Notes”, p.25

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  Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Life Changing, Epic, Power

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• The wisest have the most authority.

  Plato

  Christian, Wise, Plato

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• No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.

  Joseph Addison

  Political, Politics, Oppression

  Joseph Addison (1794). “Interesting Anecdotes, Memoirs, Allegories, Essays, and Poetical Fragments: Tending to Amuse the Fancy, and Inculcate Morality”, p.286

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• In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.

  Mark Twain

  Life, Inspiring, Truth

  Autobiography ch. 78 (1959)

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• Authority is not a quality one person 'has,' in the sense that he has property or physical qualities. Authority refers to an interpersonal relation in which one person looks upon another as somebody superior to him.

  Erich Fromm

  Quality, Looks, Relation

  Erich Fromm (2013). “The Sane Society”, p.108, Open Road Media

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• 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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• The man whose authority is recent is always stern.

  Aeschylus

  Leadership, Power, Men

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• The faith that stands on authority is not faith.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Faith, Religion

  'Essays' (1841) 'The Over-Soul'

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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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• Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt.

  Robert M. Lindner

  Fear, Doubt, Atheism

  47 Copy quote

• Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.

  Vladimir Lenin

  Reality, Poison

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• Authority is quite degrading.

  Oscar Wilde

  Degrading

  "The Soul of Man Under Socialism" (1891)

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• The Liberals have been pressing for the brief on the basis of which he said there was authority for war...

  Clare Short

  War, Said, Bases

  "Today" with John Humphrys, www.theguardian.com. February 26, 2004.

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• The being cannot be termed rational or virtuous, who obeys any authority, but that of reason.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Atheism, Literature, Reason

  Mary Wollstonecraft (2012). “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, p.177, Courier Corporation

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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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• Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.

  Voltaire

  Learning, Knowledge, Men

  "Le Chapon et la Poularde (1763)". Dialogue by Voltaire, Dialogue XIV. " Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th edition", 1919.

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• They can't chain my spirit! My spirit runs free! Walls can't contain it! Laws can't restrain it! Authority has no power over it!

  Bill Watterson

  Running, Wall, Law

  18 Copy quote

• No one can estimate the power of authority among poor and uneducated people in a world whose problems confuse even the wisest.

  Joyce Cary

  People, World, Problem

  Joyce Cary (1985). “Except the Lord”, p.30, New Directions Publishing

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• Perhaps nothing in our society is more needed for those in positions of authority than accountability.

  Larry Burkett

  Accountability, Our Society, Needed

  Larry Burkett (1998). “Business By The Book: Complete Guide of Biblical Principles for the Workplace”, p.11, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction.

  Joseph Addison

  Religious, Religion, Facts

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• When you make your peace with authority, you become authority.

  Jim Morrison

  Peace

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