Tony Benn - Lord Acton - Jonathan Miller - Carl Sagan TV - Gerald Massey - Albert Einstein - Dalai Lama - Galileo Galilei - Noam Chomsky - Cicero - Thomas Szasz - Tom Stoppard - When Eight Bells Toll 1971 - Benjamin Franklin - Karl Marx - Mikhail Bakunin - Oscar Wilde - George Carlin - Jim Morrison - Matt Groening - Thomas Jefferson - Leonardo da Vinci - Dr Who TV - Vita Sackville-West - Thomas a Kempis - William Shakespeare - Luke 20:1&2 - Mormon Doctrine & Covenants 121:39 - Tupac Shakur - Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Christopher Hitchens - Samuel Adams - Timothy Leary - Mary Wollstonecraft - Robert A Heinlein - Euripides - Gloria Steinem - Norman Douglas - Friedrich Hayek - Tsarina Alexandra - Bill Arkin - Gary Hamel - Stanley Milgrim -
Even relatively benign and temporary authoritarianism that rests upon elected power is being challenged. We are moving rapidly towards a situation where the pressure for the redistribution of political power will have to be faced as a major political issue. In a world where authoritarianism of the left or right is a very real possibility, the question of whether ordinary people can govern themselves by consent is still on trial – as it always has been, and always will be. Beyond parliamentary democracy as we know it, we shall have to find a new popular democracy to replace it. Tony Benn, speech Welsh Council of Labour May 1968, cited The Times 27 May 1968
Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Lord Acton, 1834-1902, English historian
Even in the most elementary social arrangements religious belief became almost inevitably associated with authority and power. Jonathan Miller, A Brief History of Disbelief
There are no sacred truths. All assumptions must be critically examined. Arguments from authority are worthless. Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan, Cosmos: Who Speaks For Earth? PBS 1979
If we can’t think for ourselves, if we’re unwilling to question authority, then we’re just putty in the hands of those in power. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us. In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness. Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
They must find it difficult ... Those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority. Gerald Massey
Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth. Albert Einstein, letter to Jost Winteler, cited Highfield & Carter, The Private Lives of Albert Einstein
To punish me for my contempt for authority, Fate made me an authority myself. Albert Einstein
The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual’s own reason and critical analysis. Dalai Lama
In questions of science the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei
I think it only makes sense to seek out and identify structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination in every aspect of life, and to challenge them; unless a justification for them can be given, they are illegitimate, and should be dismantled, to increase the scope of human freedom. Noam Chomsky
John Locke wrote that day labourers and tradesmen, the spinsters and dairy maids must be told what to believe; the greatest part cannot know and therefore they must believe. Noam Chomsky lecture 1990, ‘Propaganda Model Language Manipulation and US Foreign Policy’
The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn. Cicero
A teacher should have maximal authority and minimal power. Thomas Szasz
The whole philosophy of modern times is to dissolve distinctions between individuals and deal with them as large collections of people. It’s essentially self-interested on the part of authority. Tom Stoppard
You have a rather questionable attitude towards authority. When Eight Bells Toll 1971 starring Anthony Hopkins & Corin Redgrave & Jack Hawkins & Robert Morley & Nathalie Delon & Derek Bond & Ferdy Mayne & Maurice Roeves & Leon Collins & Wendy Allnutt et al, director Etienne Perier, Morley to Hopkins
It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority. Benjamin Franklin
When Engels and I first joined the secret Communist Society we made it a condition that everything tending to encourage superstitious belief in authority was to be removed from the statutes. Karl Marx, letter to W Blos 10 November 1877
In a word, we reject all legislation, all authority, and all privileged, licensed, official, and legal influence, even though arising from universal suffrage, convinced that it can turn only to the advantage of a dominant minority of exploiters against the interests of the immense majority in subjection to them. Mikhail Bakunin, God and the State
Authority is quite degrading. Oscar Wilde
I have as much authority as the Pope. I just don’t have as many people who believe it. George Carlin
When you make your peace with authority, you become authority. Jim Morrison
When the authorities warn you of the dangers of having sex, there is an important lesson to be learned. Do not have sex with the authorities. Matt Groening
All authority belongs to the people. Thomas Jefferson
Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but rather memory. Leonardo da Vinci
Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence. Leonardo da Vinci
He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak. Michel de Montaigne
Logic, my dear Zoe, merely enables one to be wrong with authority. Dr Who
Authority has every reason to fear the sceptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt. Vita Sackville-West
Authority is by nothing so much strengthened and confirmed as by custom; for no man easily distrusts the things which he and all men have been always bred up to. William Temple
It is much safer to be in a subordinate position than in authority. Thomas a Kempis
Thus can the demigod Authority
Make us pay down for our offence, by weight,
The bonds of heaven. William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure I ii 112-114, Claudio
And it came to pass, that on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple, and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders,
And spake unto him, saying, Tell us, by what authority doest thou these things? or who is he that gave thee this authority? Luke 20:1&2
I think I’m a natural-born leader. I know how to bow down to authority if it’s authority that I respect. Tupac Shakur
No man has any natural authority over his fellow men. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
For the first 1,500 years of the Christian epoch, this problem of ‘authority’, in both senses of that term, was solved by having the divine mandate wrapped up in languages that the majority of the congregation could not understand, and by having it presented to them by a special caste or class who alone possessed the mystery of celestial decoding. Christopher Hitchens
The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule. Samuel Adams
Think for yourself and question authority. Timothy Leary
The being cannot be termed rational or virtuous, who obeys any authority, but that of reason. Mary Wollstonecraft
No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority. Robert A Heinlein