Rulers Quotes - Page 4

• The impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Thinking, Church

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1771 - 1779, the Summary View, and the Declaration of Independence”, p.439, Cosimo, Inc.

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• I suppose authoritarians don't like being made fun of because authoritarian rulers have a very inflated sense of themselves and don't like being deflated, which makes it all the more important to continue to deflate them. These are very courageous people around the world who poke fun from inside these societies. So, we now have to broaden the definition of what we mean by "writer" to include bloggers, cartoonists, song writers, visual artists - all these people are, in different ways, quite brave.

  Salman Rushdie

  Song, Fun, Mean

  Source: pen.org

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• Culture is not created by command. It creates itself, arising spontaneously from the necessities of men and their social cooperative activity. No ruler could ever command men to fashion the first tools, first use fire, invent the telescope and the steam engine, or compose the Iliad. Cultural values do not arise by direction of higher authorities. They cannot be compelled by dictates nor called into life by the resolution of legislative assemblies.

  Rudolf Rocker

  Fashion, Men, Fire

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• If the ruler wants to play the game by himself and follow secret policies, he must present a decoy to the masses. He cannot escape the mass; but he can draw between himself and that mass an invisible curtain, a screen, on which the mass will see projected the mirage of some politics, while the real politics are being made behind it.

  Jacques Ellul

  Real, Games, Play

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• There are 3 elements essential in the matters of the State, Food, Military equipment, and Confidence of the people in the ruler. Of these 3, Military Equipment is the least important, Food being the 2nd important, and Confidence of the people being the MOST important. All men rather die of starvation than in war, but nevertheless all men do die of old age. Lacking in Confidence from the people, a state cannot survive.

  Confucius

  Confidence, War, Military

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• The only safe ruler is he who has learned to obey willingly.

  Thomas a Kempis

  Obeying The Law, Safe, Obedience

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• All the old history was written for the amusement of the ruling classes. The lower classes couldn't read, and their rulers didn't care about remembering what happened to them.

  Frank Zappa

  Class, Amusement, Care

  Frank Zappa, Peter Occhiogrosso (1990). “Real Frank Zappa Book”, p.200, Simon and Schuster

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• Those in authority within institutions and social structures attempt to justify their rule by linking it, as if it were a necessary consequence, with moral symbols, sacred emblems, or legal formulae which are widely believed and deeply internalized. These central conceptions may refer to a god or gods, the 'votes of the majority,' the 'will of the people,' the 'aristocracy of talents or wealth,' to the 'divine right of kings' or to the alleged extraordinary endowment of the person of the ruler himself.

  C. Wright Mills

  Kings, Divine Right, People

  "Character and Social Structure". Book by C. Wright Mills, 1953.

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• A doubtful throne is ice on summer seas.

  Alfred Lord Tennyson

  Summer, Ice, Sea

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Illustrated)”, p.943, Delphi Classics

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• I am entirely persuaded that the agitations of the public mind advance its powers, and that at every vibration between the points of liberty and despotism, something will be gained for the former. As men become better informed, their rulers must respect them the more.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Mind, Liberty

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.177, Cambridge University Press

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• The preservation of a free government requires not merely that the metes and bounds which separate each department of power be invariably maintained; but more especially that neither of them be suffered to overleap the great Barrier which defends the rights of the people. The Rulers who are guilty of such an encroachment, exceed the commission from which they derive their authority and are Tyrants. The people who submit to it are governed by laws made neither by themselves nor by an authority derived from them, and are slaves.

  James Madison

  Rights, Government, Law

  James Madison (1867). “1769-1793”, p.163

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• The violence and injustice of the rulers of mankind is an ancient evil, for which, I am afraid, the nature of human affairs can scarce admit a remedy.

  Adam Smith

  Evil, Violence, Injustice

  Adam Smith (2008). “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: A Selected Edition”, OUP Oxford

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• Jiva (individual soul) is the conscious ruler of this body, in whom the five life principles come into unity, and yet that very Jiva is the Atman, because all is Atman.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Soul, Unity, Principles

  Swami Vivekananda (1953). “Complete Works”

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• I now add, farther, that the apostles argument is so far from proving it to be the duty of people to obey, and submit to, such rulers as act in contradiction to the public good, and so to the design of their office, that it proves the direct contrary.

  Jonathan Mayhew

  People, Office, Design

  Jonathan Mayhew (1969). “Sermons: Seven Sermons: A Discourse, Concerning the Unlimited Submission and Non-resistance to the Higher Powers. The Snare Broken”

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• Have a similar outlook as a monarch. A ruler is not reluctant to come up short. Disappointment is an alternate steppingstone to significance.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Disappointment, Come Up, Outlook

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• "Laws and conditions that tend to debase human personality - a God-given force - be they brought about by the State or other individuals, must be relentlessly opposed in the spirit of defiance shown by St. Peter when he said to the rulers of his day: "Shall we obey God or man?"

  Albert Lutuli

  Men, Law, Personality

  "The Road to Freedom is via the Cross". Book by Albert Lutuli, 1952.

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• The latest political rumor, North Korea ruler Kim Jong Il is close to naming his successor. Yeah, he said the only person with glasses big enough to replace me is Nicole Richie.

  Conan O'Brien

  Glasses, Korea, Political

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• The inability to grasp the pathology* of our oligarchic rulers is one of our gravest faults.

  Chris Hedges

  Inability, Faults, Pathology

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• God is sovereign, that is He is the boss. He is in control. He is the supreme ruler of heaven and earth for all of eternity. He is Lord. We don't make Him Lord. He is Lord. And joy comes when we acknowledge that He is Lord; we rest in His Lordship. We trust His sovereignty, and we surrender to it. That means that God has the right to give, and God has the right to take away.

  Nancy Leigh DeMoss

  Mean, Giving, Joy

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• All coming to Jesus has the feeling of homecoming upon it. All going away from Him has the sense of estrangement upon it. The rich young ruler went away from Jesus "sorrowful." Everybody does. Not only estrangement from God, but also estrangement from oneself. And the universe! And from life! You are not at home with life, unless you are at home with Life. And Jesus is Life!

  E. Stanley Jones

  Jesus, Home, Feelings

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• God is in charge, waiting for His people to challenge the rulers of the earth and take the steering wheel from them, ... the battle for the earth is currently going on.

  Gary North

  People, Waiting, Challenges

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• The Arab rulers are basically unpopular. They are supported by the United States against the wishes of their people. In all of this rather heady mixture of violence and policies that are remarkably unpopular right down to the last iota, it's not hard for demagogues, especially people who claim to speak in the name of religion, in this case Islam, to raise a crusade against the United States and say that we must somehow bring America down.

  Edward Said

  Names, America, People

  Source: progressive.org

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• How apostles are received is a key measuring stick as to how the Lord will release blessings or judgments on a territory. Apostles also have authority over the demonic rulers of a region. They have the ability to demonstrate supernatural power that draws a whole region to our life-giving God.

  Chuck Pierce

  Blessing, Keys, Giving

  "The Future War of the Church: How We Can Defeat Lawlessness and Bring God's Order to Earth". Book by Chuck D. Pierce, Rebecca Wagner Sytsema, 2001.

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• The true strength of rulers and empires lies not in armies or emotions, but in the belief of men that they are inflexibly open and truthful and legal. As soon as a government departs from that standard it ceases to be anything more than 'the gang in possession,' and its days are numbered.

  H. G. Wells

  Lying, Army, Men

  H. G. Wells (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of H. G. Wells”, p.14869, Delphi Classics

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• The apparent rulers of the English nation are like the most imposing personages of the a splendid procession; it is by them that the mob are influenced; it is they who the inspectors cheer. The real rulers are secreted in second hand carriages; no one cares for them or asks about them, but they are obeyed implicitly and unconsciously by reason of the splendour of those who eclipsed and preceded them.

  Walter Bagehot

  Cheer, Real, Hands

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