#authority

Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt. ↗

— Vita Sackville-West

#doubt #every #face #fear #rarely

If ever you feel like an animal among men, be a lion. ↗

— Criss Jami

#authority #beast #boldness #conquering #courage

I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. ↗

— James Madison

#constitution #freedom-of-speech #freedom-of-thought #politics #freedom

Our natural rights come from an authority beyond the petty rule of man. ↗

— Bryant McGill

#freedom #right #freedom

But there is a higher law than the Constitution, which regulates our authority over the domain, and devotes it to the same noble purposes. ↗

— William H. Seward

#constitution #devotes #domain #higher #law

Modern intelligence won't accept anything on authority. But it will accept anything without authority. ↗

— G.K. Chesterton

#intelligence #intelligence

Men are excessively ruthless and cruel not as a rule out of malice but from outraged righteousness. How much more is this true of legally constituted states, invested with all this seeming moral authority of parliaments and congresses and courts of justice! The destructive capacity of an individual, however vicious, is small; of the state, however well-intentioned, almost limitless. Expand the state and the destructive capacity necessarily expands too. Collective righteousness is far more ungovernable than any individual pursuit of revenge. That was a point well understood by Woodrow Wilson, who warned: 'Once lead this people into war and they'll forget there ever was such a thing as tolerance. ↗

— Paul Johnson

#indignation #men

There is a circularity here I do not doubt. I am defending the Bible by the Bible. Circularity of a kind is unavoidable when one seeks to defend an ultimate standard of truth, for one's defense must itself be accountable to that standard. ↗

— John M. Frame

#christianity #logic #religion #the-bible #truth

Allen Ginsberg was a world authority on the writing of William Blake, and had an incredible knowledge of classic literature and world politics. ↗

— David Amram

#authority #blake #classic #ginsberg #had

By liberty I mean the assurance that every man shall be protected in doing what he believes is his duty against the influence of authority and majorities, custom and opinion. ↗

— John Acton

#assurance #authority #believes #custom #doing