#authority

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

The mathematicians are the priests of the modern world. ↗

— Bill Gaede

#gaede #god #mathematics #peer #physics

I shall drink to the Pope, if you please, still, to conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards. ↗

— John Henry Newman

#conscience #religion #religion

-You have no respect for excessive authority or obsolete traditions. You're dangerous and depraved, and you ought to be taken outside and shot! ↗

— Joseph Heller

#authority #conservatism #conservatives #military #right-wingers

I respect you as my king, and I respect you as my father, but I do not respect you as a man! ↗

— Rebecca McKinsey

#elders #parents #respect #royalty #respect

But I recognize no infallible authority, even in special questions; consequently, whatever respect I may have for the honesty and the sincerity of such or such an individual, I have no absolute faith in any person. ↗

— Mikhail Bakunin

#any #authority #consequently #even #faith

It's also natural in that part of the world to blame what people view as the... as the most important authority in the region, and that currently is the United States of America. ↗

— John Abizaid

#america #authority #blame #currently #important

Let us be true: this is the highest maxim of art and of life, the secret of eloquence and of virtue, and of all moral authority. ↗

— Henri Frederic Amiel

#authority #be true #eloquence #highest #let us

We support too big to fail. We want the government to be able to take down a big bank like JP Morgan and it could be done. We think Dodd-Frank, which we supported parts of, gave the FDIC the authority to take down a big bank. ↗

— Jamie Dimon

#authority #bank #big #could #done

I am conservative by temperament. I disapprove of criminal activity. I am very solidly and markedly on the side of authority. The truth is I would rather err on the side of too much authority than too little. ↗

— James Ellroy

#am #authority #conservative #criminal #disapprove