Authority Quotes - Page 35

• 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

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• Authority is no source for Truth.

  Aristotle

  Source

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• Successful argument is a communication between the acknowledged authority of both parties to the argument.

  Gerry Spence

  Party, Communication, Successful

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• I have a great respect for the flag, (but) if the government passed a law saying that I had to pledge allegiance to the flag, I don't think I would do it. I've always felt that I lived in a country...where if I wanted to worship God as a Baptist, I could do so. If I were an atheist, I could be one. If I wanted to be a Catholic but was born a Jew, there's no condemnation...from a government authority.

  Jimmy Carter

  Country, Atheist, Thinking

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• The Constitution is the origin and measure of legislative authority. It says to legislators, thus far ye shall go and no farther. Not a particle of it should be shaken; not a pebble of it should be removed.

  William Paterson

  Law, Political, Measurement

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• Don't let anyone tell you that you cannot know the truth for yourself or that you cannot achieve yourself spiritually without being tied to a temple or church. You were not born a spiritual slave. You are the authority who distinguishes what is true and untrue, spiritual and unspiritual.

  Hua Ching Ni

  Spiritual, Church, Temples

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• I will not sulk about having no boyfriend, but develop inner poise and authority and sense of self as woman of substance, complete without boyfriend, as best way to obtain boyfriend.

  Helen Fielding

  Self, Way, Substance

  Bridget Jones's Diary "New Year's Resolutions" (1996)

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• Nothing can preserve the integrity of contact between individuals, except a discretionary authority in the state to revise what has become intolerable. The powers of uninterrupted usury are too great. If the accretions of vested interests were to grow without mitigation for many generations, half the population would be no better than slaves to the other half.

  John Maynard Keynes

  Integrity, Generations, Half

  John Maynard Keynes, Royal Economic Society (Great Britain) (1971). “The collected writings of John Maynard Keynes”

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• The more ignorant the authority, the more dogmatic it is. In the fields where no real knowledge is even possible, the authorities are the fiercest and most assured and punish non-belief with the severest of penalties.

  Abraham Myerson

  Real, Ignorant, Fields

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• The art of subversion, of revolution, is to dislodge established customs by probing down to their origins in order to show how they lack authority and justice.

  Blaise Pascal

  Art, Order, Justice

  Blaise Pascal (1966). “Pascal Pensées”, Penguin Classics

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• All my authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Bible, Heaven, Jesus Christ

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• I have served one idea, marched under one banner - war against all imposed authority - against every kind of deprivation of freedom, in the name of the absolute independence of the individual.

  Alexander Herzen

  War, Names, Ideas

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• The government's collection authority, under the Patriot Act, is basically limitless. They can get the medical records and financial records, gun purchase records. And it also becomes part of another important issue that relates to the FISA court and the rest of the debate. It almost becomes a secret law, like there are two Patriot Acts. The one you read on the laptop essentially leads you to believe that there's some connection to terror .

  Ron Wyden

  Believe, Gun, Government

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• To state a lie firmly, categorically and with great authority, undeterred by the fact that all concerned know it to be a lie, is one of the principal activities defined by the term practising law.

  Stephen Vizinczey

  Lying, Law, Facts

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• Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.

  Gautama Buddha

  Wisdom, Teacher, Religious

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• The alternative to doubt is authority, against which science had fought for centuries.

  James Gleick

  Doubt, Alternatives, Century

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• Especially if you don't have a job that's providing fulfillment in your technical expertise, there is a lot of reward to working on a very smart and demanding community that will respect you and will give you leadership and authority based on what you do.

  Mitchell Baker

  Jobs, Smart, Giving

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• The first foundation for the creation of authority is always provided by popularity.

  Adolf Hitler

  Foundation, Firsts, Popularity

  Adolf Hitler (1998). “Mein Kampf”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• I wish to give officials greater discretion. The State's authority will be increased thereby. I wish to transform the non-political criminal police into a political instrument of the highest State authority.

  Adolf Hitler

  Giving, Political, Police

  Richard Breiting, Adolf Hitler (1971). “Secret conversations with Hitler: the two newly-discovered 1931 interviews”

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• Of course, this has its good side as well as its bad one. As we become permanent drunkards by so may separate drinks, so we become saints in the moral, and authorities and experts in the practical and scientific spheres, by so many separate acts and hours of work. Let no youth have any anxiety about the upshot of his education, whatever the line of it may be. If he keep faithfully busy each hour of the working day, he may safely leave the final result to itself.

  William James

  Anxiety, Experts, Saint

  William James (2017). “Habit”, p.22, Read Books Ltd

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