Because children see parents as authority figures and gods, they think that the way you treat them is the way they deserve to be treated: “What you say about me is what I am” is a literal truth to your child. Consequently, when children are treated with respect, they conclude that they deserve respect and hence develop self-respect.
—Stephanie Marston
To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.
—Albert Einstein
The only authority I respect is the one that causes butterflies to fly south in fall and north in springtime.
—Tom Robbins
I think we are constantly faced with the same decision. The decision to be blindly obedient to authority versus the decision to try and change things by fighting the powers that be is always, throughout history, the only decision.
—Abbie Hoffman
The most absurd apology for authority and law is that they serve to diminish crime. Aside from the fact that the State is itself the greatest criminal, breaking every written and natural law, stealing in the form of taxes, killing in the form of war and capital punishment, it has come to an absolute standstill in coping with crime.
—Emma Goldman
Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.
—Thomas H. Huxley
What causes adolescents to rebel is not the assertion of authority but the arbitrary use of power, with little explanation of the rules and no involvement [of the adolescent] in the decision making.
—Laurence Steinberg and Ann Levine
What you need is sustained outrage.… There's far too much unthinking respect given to authority.
—Molly Ivins
No moral system can rest solely on authority.
—A. J. Ayer
The peaceful transfer of authority is rare in history, yet common in our country. With a simple oath, we affirm old traditions and make new beginnings.
—George W. Bush
Truth is the secret of eloquence and of virtue, the basis of moral authority; it is the highest summit of art and life.
—Henri-Frederic Amiel
Show me the man who keeps his house in hand,
He's fit for public authority.
—Sophocles
Wherever there is authority, there is a natural inclination to disobedience.
—Thomas Haliburton
There is no fettering of authority.
—William Shakespeare
If you wish to know what a man is, place him in authority.
—Yugoslav Proverb