Thus can the demigod Authority
Make us pay down for our offense by weight
The words of read more

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.

All authority must be out of a man's self, turned . . . either
upon an art, or upon read more

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

Authority intoxicates,
And makes mere sots of magistrates;
The fumes of it invade the brain,
read more

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

Merciful heaven,
Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt
Splits the unwedgeable and gnarled oak
read more

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.

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

I am certainly not an authority on love because there are no authorities on love, just those who've had luck read more

I am certainly not an authority on love because there are no authorities on love, just those who've had luck with it and those who haven't.

Liberty is the proper end and object of authority, and cannot subsist without it; and it is liberty to that read more

Liberty is the proper end and object of authority, and cannot subsist without it; and it is liberty to that which is good, just, and honest.

Authority forgets a dying king,
Laid widow'd of the power in his eye
That bow'd the will.

Authority forgets a dying king,
Laid widow'd of the power in his eye
That bow'd the will.

Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar? . . . And the
creature run from the read more

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.