Quotes about Authority

Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.

When the subject has refused allegiance and the officer has resigned his office, then the revolution is accomplished.

The only government that I recognize,—and it matters not how few are at the head of it, or how small its army,—is that power that establishes justice in the land, never that which establishes injustice. What shall we think of a government to which all the truly brave and just men in the land are enemies, standing between it and those whom it oppresses? A government that pretends to be Christian and crucifies a million Christs every day!

I was never molested by any person but those who represented the State.

This [...] government [...] has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man cam bend it to his will.

One afternoon ... I was seized and put into jail, because ... I did not pay a tax to, or recognize the authority of, the state which buys men, women, and children, like cattle at the door of its senate house. I had gone down to the woods for other purposes. But, wherever a man goes, men will pursue and paw him with their dirty institutions, and, if they can, constrain him to belong to their desperate odd-fellow society.

so long as the interest of the whole society requires it, that is, so long as the established government cannot be resisted or changed without public inconvenience, it is the will of God … that the established government be obeyed—and no longer. This principle being admitted, the justice of every particular case of resistance is reduced to a computation of the quantity of the danger and grievance on the one side, and of the probability and expense of redressing it on the other.

When leaders claim that God bypasses their followers and speaks directly to them, they greatly diminish all God does through the lives of believers. Leaders who begrudge people the opportunity to seek God themselves and who do not actively teach their people how to hear God's voice have disqualified themselves as spiritual leaders.

What a comfort to know we are not out on our own trying to make a difference in the world, but we have been chosen, appointed, and sent by the King of kings and the Lord of lords to be his ambassadors of light ! We go on his authority, his power, his strength, on his terms, and with his protection. We are sent bearing a message of hope in a hopeless world.

Over the course of my life, I have learned some important lessons about God's power. For one, you don't need divine power if you are not obeying what God said. It doesn't take a miracle to live in disobedience!

The key difference between what appears to be impossible to us and what is actually possible is a word from our Master!

If you look upon the rule in Titus it is a rule to me. If you convince me that it is no rule I shall yield.