#authority

Literature isn't a moral beauty contest. Its power arises from the authority and audacity with which the impersonation is pulled off; the belief it inspires is what counts. ↗

— Philip Roth

#audacity #authority #beauty #belief #contest

I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe that the War is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. ↗

— Siegfried Sassoon

#am #authority #because #being #believe

And revolutions always mean the breakdown of old authority. ↗

— Hu Shih

#authority #breakdown #mean #old #revolutions

If ever you feel like an animal among men, be a lion. ↗

— Criss Jami

#authority #beast #boldness #conquering #courage

[Pope] Clement waved his hands in irritation as if to dismiss the very idea. "The world is crumbling into ruin. Armies are marching. Men and women are dying everywhere, in huge numbers. Fields are abandoned and towns deserted. The wrath of the Lord is upon us and He may be intending to destroy the whole of creation. People are without leaders and direction. They want to be given a reason for this, so they can be reassured, so they will return to their prayers and their obiediences. All this is going on, and you are concerned about the safety of two Jews? ↗

— Iain Pears

#civilization #decay #end-of-the-world #genocide #god-s-wrath

When your family is twice as weird as normal, you have to be twice as polite to authority, because authority hates weird. ↗

— Rosemary Clement-Moore

#politeness #family

You understand Teacher, don't you, that when you have a mother who's an angel and a father who is a cannibal king, and when you have sailed on the ocean all your whole life, then you don't know just how to behave in school with all the apples and ibexes. ↗

— Astrid Lindgren

#etiquette #humor #humor

His ambition was not to become wealthy or to be well known, an image which society for some reason dictates each individual should prescribe to, instead his only ambition was to be at peace with himself, if he could achieve that than anything else he might need would follow. From now on he would question all things in life, but especially the rules and regulations of all authority institutions; he would take nothing on face value and only would accept what he personally knew to undeniably be true. ↗

— Andrew James Pritchard

#choices #freedom-of-expression #inner-peace #questioning-authority #freedom

I doubt that my sense of personal freedom is any stronger than anybody else's. I'm happy to respect authority when it's genuine authority, based on moral or intellectual or even technical superiority. I'm eager to follow a hero if we can find one. But I tend to resist or evade any kind of authority based merely on the power to coerce. Government, for example. The Army tried to train us to salute the uniform, not the man. Failed. I will salute the man, maybe, if I think he's worthy of it, but I don't salute uniforms anymore. ↗

— Edward Abbey

#coerce #government #military #respect-for-authority #salute

Modern intelligence won't accept anything on authority. But it will accept anything without authority. ↗

— G.K. Chesterton

#intelligence #intelligence