There are very few men that can bear authority if they haven’t been born with the shoulders for it. If you gave a man a nose that never had one, he would be blowing it all day.
Authority Quotes
Authority… is itself inherently an act of imagination.
All authority belongs to the people.
His (Cardinal Wolsey’s) own opinion was his law. (Henry VIII)
In questions difficult or dangerous, it is indeed natural to repose upon authority, and, when fear happens to predominate, upon the authority of those whom we do not in general think wiser than ourselves.
Authority, though it err like others, hath yet a kind of medicine in itself, that skins the vice off the top. (Measure for Measure)
The young are too apt to believe what a great man says, especially if he be an authority in the profession they follow.
Nothing sooner overthrows a weak head than opinion of authority; like too strong liquor for a frail glass.
Nothing more impairs authority than a too frequent or indiscreet use of it. If thunder itself were to be continual, it would excite no more terror than the noise of a mill.
It is one of the few “laws” of human relations that not only those who suffer from arbitrary authority, but also those who wield it, become alienated from others and thus dehumanized.
