Authority Quotes - Page 29

• There exists, I believe, throughout the whole Christian world, a law which makes it blasphemy to deny or doubt the divine inspiration of all the books of the Old and New Testaments, from Genesis to Revelations. In most countries of Europe it is punished by fire at the stake, or the rack, or the wheel... Now, what free inquiry, when a writer must surely encounter the risk of fine or imprisonment for adducing any argument for investigating the divine authority of those books?

  John Adams

  Christian, Country, Inspiration

  Thomas Jefferson, John Adams (2006). “"Ye Will Say I Am No Christian": The Thomas Jefferson/John Adams Correspondence on Religion, Morals, and Values”

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Many argue that Christianity is "different" from other religions - that it is primarily about love of one's fellow man. The Crusades, The Inquisition, Calvin's Geneva all prove that this is not the case. These events were pre-eminently about obedience to authority.

  Andrew Bernstein

  Men, Atheism, Fellow Man

  12 Copy quote

• But in a turbulent environment the change is so widespread that it just routes around any kind of central authority. So it is best to manage the bottom-up change rather than try to institute it from the top down.

  Kevin Kelly

  Top Down, Trying, Literature

  7 Copy quote

• All commandments that I give must be obeyed unless they are revoked by me or by my authority and how can I revoke an everlasting covenant for I the Lord am everlasting and my everlasting covenants cannot be abrogated nor done away with but stand forever.

  John Taylor

  Giving, Forever, Done

  4 Copy quote

• If you are a parent, if you are an educator, there are very many good and powerful reasons to take children onto the Internet, but you have to be involved with them-you cannot expect government authorities or industry authorities or other people to do your job for you, and that is to help guard your children against some of these things that are occurring out there.

  Jim Carroll

  Jobs, Powerful, Children

  16 Copy quote

• I was never interested in the two-party system per se. I was interested in how authority was abused by government, and how lies were told, and rewritten, to seem to be true. I came up out of a tradition of radical journalism.

  Jules Feiffer

  Lying, Party, Government

  Interview with Sam Adams, www.avclub.com. July 28, 2008.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• I didn't really fit with other kids. I had problems in school all my life and problems with authority. But my parents never did drugs or anything. They just believed in freedom in the best sense of the word.

  Julie Delpy

  School, Kids, Parent

  "Julie Delpy's Entropic Vacation". Interview with Drew Fortune, www.interviewmagazine.com. August 9, 2012.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Most of us aren't crazy psychotics, but most of us are a whole bunch of different people. I think when you are in a position of authority, that doesn't remove that from you.

  David Hyde Pierce

  Crazy, Thinking, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• There's no better way to become a disintegrated character than to be your own authority.

  Henry Cloud

  Character, Way, Better Ways

  "The Composition of Integrity - Henry Cloud Interview". Interview with Paul Braoudakis, willowcreek.org.uk. November 10, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Oftentimes, churches are started by an entrepreneurial church plant visionary whom everybody follows, but he's not following anybody. Even though he's "accountable to a board," he's really not. Authority's a good thing, and if it's not forced upon you as a leader, then I suggest, strongly, that you go buy some.

  Henry Cloud

  Leader, Church, Boards

  "The Composition of Integrity - Henry Cloud Interview". Interview with Paul Braoudakis, willowcreek.org.uk. November 10, 2010.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I always feel bad for those who, in a sense, cede their authority to others, let others make major decisions about their life and actually believe them. When you're tiny, you have no choice. But as soon as your mind starts working, you pretty well figure it out. And you realize you're a hostage until you're old enough to leave. But as long as you have that goal - I will get out of here - you'll be OK.

  Rita Mae Brown

  Believe, Goal, Long

  "Joe Wenke Interviews: Rita Mae Brown on being a Lambda Literary Pioneer". booktrib.com. May 31, 2015.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Walesa was a national hero, a true icon. The vast majority of Poles didn't believe a word the authorities said. They took everything the official media said about Walesa to be a manipulation by the Communist authorities.

  Slawomir Cenckiewicz

  Believe, Hero, Media

  Source: www.spiegel.de

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• 'Rights' are granted; 'duties' are enforced. To speak of rights and duties is to think in terms of authority.

  Laurance Labadie

  Thinking, Rights, Speak

  8 Copy quote

• Quotations have always been supremely effective rhetorical devices, instruments of one-upmanship, ways of supporting any position under the sun with borrowed or stolen authority.

  Justin Kaplan

  Way, Sun, Stolen

  7 Copy quote

• Public circulation is what renders something a quotation. It's quotable because it's been quoted, and its having been quoted gives it authority.

  Louis Menand

  Giving, Circulation, Quotations

  "Notable Quotables" by Louis Menand, www.newyorker.com. February 19, 2007.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Do not believe anything on the mere authority of teachers or priests. Accept as true and as the guide to your life only that which accords with your own reason and experience, after thorough investigation. Accept only that which contributes to the well-being of yourself and others.

  Gautama Buddha

  Teacher, Believe, Reason

  22 Copy quote

• I think it will be found that he who speaks with most authority on a given subject is not ignorant of what has been said by his predecessors. He will take his place in a regular order, and substantially add his own knowledge to the knowledge of previous generations.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Thinking, Order, Ignorant

  Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.77, Heron Dance Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Authority is no source for Truth.

  Aristotle

  Source

  17 Copy quote

• In truth, there never was any remarkable lawgiver amongst any people who did not resort to divine authority, as otherwise his laws would not have been accepted by the people; for there are many good laws, the importance of which is known to be the sagacious lawgiver, but the reasons for which are not sufficiently evident to enable him to persuade others to submit to them; and therefore do wise men, for the purpose of removing this difficulty, resort to divine authority.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Wise, Men, Law

  12 Copy quote

• Someone who lies and someone who tells the truth are playing on opposite sides, so to speak, in the same game. Each responds to the facts as he understands them, although the response of the one is guided by the authority of the truth, while the response of the other defies that authority and refuses to meet its demands. The bullshitter ignores these demands altogether. He does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.

  Harry Frankfurt

  Liars, Lying, Opposites

  21 Copy quote

• There may be babblers, wholly ignorant of mathematics, who dare to condemn my hypothesis, upon the authority of some part of the Bible twisted to suit their purpose. I value them not, and scorn their unfounded judgment.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Ignorant, Suits, Purpose

  45 Copy quote

• Authority never matches responsibility. That's one of the great myths and delusions of all times. Winning managers and individual performers at all levels know that effectiveness means building your own network and creating your own authority. Those who succeed always reach far beyond formal deputation, take initiatives, and take the heat when things go awry. That's true in the military in times of war, true for 200 person manufacturing firms, and true at giant automakers or software companies.

  Tom Peters

  Military, War, Mean

  6 Copy quote

• To those who would submit to the rightful law and authority, all gentleness and forbearance; but to the petulant and persistent secessionists, why, death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of the better. Satan and the rebellious saints of Heaven were allowed a continuous existence in hell merely to swell their just punishment. To such as would rebel against a Government so mild and just as ours was in peace, a punishment equal would not be unjust.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Government, Law, Punishment

  56 Copy quote

• Science ... looks skeptically at all claims to knowledge, old and new. It teaches not blind obedience to those in authority but to vigorous debate, and in many respects that's the secret of its success.

  Carl Sagan

  Secret, Looks, Old And New

  15 Copy quote

• To defy the authority of empirical evidence is to disqualify oneself as someone worthy of critical engagement in a dialogue.

  Dalai Lama

  Engagement, Empirical Evidence, Worthy

  10 Copy quote