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Authority Quotes
"In my day, the president ruled with authority before the law, but now all that is lost."
151
"The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual's own reason and critical analysis."
126
"Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself."
122
"I am the Roman Emperor, and am above grammar."
69
"Writing is a dreadful labor, yet not so dreadful as Idleness."
68
"If an individual is born with the obligation to obey, who is born with the right to command?"
56
"Authority pisses me off. I think everyone should be able to drink and get loud whenever they want."
52
"Those who enjoy responsibility usually get it; those who merely like exercising authority usually lose it."
50
"The more she rejected us the more convinced I was that she was another version of the real Molly, her disdain for authority, her scepticism that she had to do what the white man told her because it was good for her... She is Molly."
50
"The burnt odor in Washington is from the disintegrating authority of the governing classes."
49
"We have one authority and one law and everyone has the responsibility to follow that law and that authority."
49
"The earl shook his head, exhibiting a degree of frosty offense that could only be achieved by an aristocrat whose wishes had just been gainsaid. "I've never heard of a man being so eager to confess to the parent of a girl he's just ruined, he said sourly."
46
"No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority."
46
"If you're going to kick authority in the teeth, you might as well use two feet."
44
"In order to be respected, authority has got to be respectable."
44
"Respect by fear isn't respect... it's fear."
42
"The Priestly Code preponderates over the rest of the legislation in force, as well as in bulk; in all matters of primary importance it is the normal and final authority."
41
"Of course the UN brings in a lot of moral authority."
41
"You can delegate authority, but you cannot delegate responsibility."
40
"The Hamas organization is unwilling to honor the obligations that the Palestinian Authority has signed."
40
"Moral authority has been laid to rest, world opinion is no more than a game show and the difference between good and evil is about as relevant as changing channels."
40
"Courtrooms contain every symbol of authority that a set designer could imagine. Everyone stands up when you come in. You wear a costume identifying you as, if not quite divine, someone special."
40
"Freedom of conscience entails more dangers than authority and despotism."
40
"I'll be on my third honeymoon, so I'm more of an authority than I care to be."
40
"Majority rule gives the ruthless strong man plenty of elbow room to oppress his fellows."
39
"I believe that historians and analysts of historical events need the authority of facts supplied by living witnesses to the events, which they make their subject."
39
"I wasn't good with authority, went to lots of schools, didn't like the fact that there was no autonomy."
38
"The dead and past stories that I have told again in divers fashions, are not set down without authority."
38
"I'm the guy who wrote The Authority Song. Did they think I was kidding? Did they think it was only a song to entertain?"
38
"Instead, I was interested in what I guess I could call narrative indeterminacy, in questioning the apparent, taken-for-granted authority of any particular representation of the events in question."
38
"We have to give value to authority. We have to give value to office, being in office, holding office."
38
"Celebrity distorts democracy by giving the rich, beautiful, and famous more authority than they deserve."
37
"It is not a sign of arrogance for the king to rule. That is what he is there for."
37
"The Gentlemen of England serve under the greatest cad in Europe."
37
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