Quotes about Authority

The God of the Bible was Lord over everything, over every scientific discovery. He was Lord over not just what we did not know, but over what we knew and were discovering through science.

Karl Bonhoeffer taught his children to speak only when they had something to say. He did not tolerate sloppiness of expression any more than he tolerated self-pity or selfishness or boastful pride. His children loved and respected him in a way that made them eager to gain his approval; he hardly had to say anything to communicate his feelings on a subject. Often a cocked eyebrow was all it took.

There was only one reality, and Christ was Lord over all of it, or none.

We've gone all the way from foolishly accepting authority to foolishly rejecting all authority.

Governments do not govern, but merely control the machinery of government, being themselves controlled by the hidden hand.

The legitimacy of coercive acts in a democracy arises from the process by which they are justified and by the degree to which we regard decisions as rational. If the justifications proceed properly, through recognized public institutions, and if they make sense to us, they are legitimate.

I do have a political agenda. It's to have as few regulations as possible.

I respect my father as a father, but I also respect him as an honorable chairman.

The absence of men in the household has caused people to not know how to respond to authority with respect. There's a major problem with the patriarchs having been chased out of the house.

No wonder male religious leaders so often say that humans were born in sin—because we were born to female creatures. Only by obeying the rules of the patriarchy can we be reborn through men. No wonder priests and ministers in skirts sprinkle imitation birth fluid over our heads, give us new names, and promise rebirth into everlasting life.

He began to realize what the criminal class knows so well, the impossibility of explaining anything to a man with power.

As long as there is a Church, there will be little Torquemadas