Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.

All my authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism.

To rule children by force is the technique of Satan, not of the Savior.

When we wrote the Constitution, the intention was to give the commander in chief the authority how to use the forces when you authorize him to be able to use the forces.

If a projectile were deprived of the force of gravity, it would not be deflected toward the earth but would go off in a straight line into the heavens and do so with uniform motion, provided that the resistance of the air were removed.

An object in motion tends to remain in motion along a straight line unless acted upon by an outside force.

The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual’s own reason and critical analysis.

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

Law, without force, is impotent.

Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.

If the United Nations once admits that international disputes can be settled by using force, then we will have destroyed the foundation of the organization and our best hope of establishing a world order.

Desire and force between them are responsible for all our actions; desire causes our voluntary acts, force our involuntary.

The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.

If you get to a point where the existing institutions will not bend to the popular will, you have to eliminate the institutions.

The faith that stands on authority is not faith.

Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.

One of the first duties of a Scout is obedience to authority. He must obey his orders in the first place and put his own amusement or desires in the second.

Remember that the essence of authority is that people willingly follow your lead.

Force always attracts men of low morality.

In my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is no need of bloodshed and war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course, and I may say in advance, there will be no blood shed unless it be forced upon the government. The government will not use force unless force is used against it.

No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it.

When grand plans for scientific and defence technologies are made, do the people in power think about the sacrifices the people in the laboratories and fields have to make?

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

The people are hungry: It is because those in authority eat up too much in taxes.

Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.

I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want.

Cruel leaders are replaced only to have new leaders turn cruel.

Be the chief but never the lord.

Hate and force cannot be in just a part of the world without having an effect on the rest of it.

The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.

The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it.

All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.

People are underestimating the force of angry kids.

No man has any natural authority over his fellow men.

Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.

Democracy passes into despotism.

I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator.

Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.

Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force.

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.

Our schools and colleges are turning out people who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do.

If you care about other people, you might try to organize to undermine power and authority. That’s not going to happen if you care only about yourself.

War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits.

The only difference between the sane and the insane is that the sane have the power to lock up the insane.

If we go on your iPhone and go to the dictionary and look up ‚humble,‘ 80 per cent of the definition is negative. It’s a controlling word. It’s a way to control the masses and to control the sheep.

We are the miracle of force and matter making itself over into imagination and will. Incredible. The Life Force experimenting with forms. You for one. Me for another. The Universe has shouted itself alive. We are one of the shouts.

Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.

We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.

There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.

If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.

It is pretty ironic that the so-called ‚least advanced‘ people are the ones taking the lead in trying to protect all of us, while the richest and most powerful among us are the ones who are trying to drive the society to destruction.

I’m the only president you’ve got.

You could tell ‚The Handmaid’s Tale‘ from a male point of view. People have mistakenly felt that the women are oppressed, but power tends to organise itself in a pyramid. I could pick a male narrator from somewhere in that pyramid. It would interesting.

The female loves to play man against man. And if she is in a position to do it, there is not one who will resist.

The moment people feel they know what to expect from you, your spell on them is broken. More: You have ceded them power.

International affairs is very much run like the mafia. The godfather does not accept disobedience, even from a small storekeeper who doesn’t pay his protection money. You have to have obedience; otherwise, the idea can spread that you don’t have to listen to the orders, and it can spread to important places.

The wisest have the most authority.

Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.

Great is the hand that holds dominion over man by a scribbled name.