Quotes

Quotes about Authority


And art made tongue-tied by authority.

William Shakespeare

But man, proud man,
Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As make the angels weep.

William Shakespeare

O, what authority and show of truth
Can cunning sin cover itself withal!

William Shakespeare

Small have continual plodders ever won
Save base authority from others' books.
These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights
That give a name to every fixed star
Have no more profit of their shining nights
Than those that walk and wot not what they are.

William Shakespeare

In their nomination to office they will not appoint to the exercise of authority as to a pitiful job, but as to a holy function.

Edmund Burke

The mere repetition of the Cantilena of lawyers cannot make it law, unless it can be traced to some competent authority; and if it be irreconcilable, to some clear legal principle.

Lord Denman

The faith that stands on authority is not faith.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

François Marie Arouet de Voltaire

Truth is the secret of eloquence and of virtue, the basis of moral authority; it is the highest summit of art and of life.

Henri Frédéric Amiel

Question Authority... and the Authorities will question you!

Question Authority... and the Authorities will question you!

Destiny: A tyrant's authority for crime and a fool's excuse for failure.

Ambrose Bierce

Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.

Thomas Huxley

Liberty is the possibility of doubting, the possibility of making a mistake, the possibility of searching and experimenting, the possibility of saying No to any authority - literary, artistic, philosophic, religious, social, and even political.

Ignazio Silone

Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.

Anne Bradstreet

Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge: fitter to bruise than polish.

Anne Bradstreet

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

Albert Einstein

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.

Galileo Galilei

All authority must be out of a man's self, turned . . . either upon an art, or upon a man. - Francis Bacon,

Francis Bacon

Authority intoxicates, And makes mere sots of magistrates; The fumes of it invade the brain, And make men giddy, proud, and vain.

Samuel Butler (1)

Authority is never without hate.

Samuel Butler (1)

Well, I must be patient; there is no fettering of authority.

William Shakespeare

Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar? . . . And the creature run from the cur. There thou mightst behold the great image of authority--a dog's obeyed in office.

William Shakespeare

Thus can the demigod Authority Make us pay down for our offense by weight The words of heaven; on whom it will, it will, On whom it will not, so: yet still 'tis just.

William Shakespeare

Merciful heaven, Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt Splits the unwedgeable and gnarled oak Than the soft myrtle; but man, proud man, Dressed in a little brief authority, Most ignorant of what he's most assured His glassy essence--like an angry ape Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven As makes the angels weep; who, with our spleens, would all themselves laugh mortal.

William Shakespeare

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