This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Lucretia Mott, fully Lucretia Coffin Mott
My conviction led me to adhere to the sufficiency of the light within us, resting on truth for authority, not on authority for truth.
Ludwig von Mises, fully Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises
It is a double-edged makeshift to entrust an individual or a group of individuals with the authority to resort to violence. The enticement implied is too tempting for a human being. The men who are to protect the community against violent aggression easily turn into the most dangerous aggressors. They transgress their mandate. They misuse their power for the oppression of those whom they were expected to defend against oppression. The main political problem is how to prevent the police power from becoming tyrannical. This is the meaning of all the struggles for liberty.
Aggression | Authority | Individual | Meaning | Men | Oppression | Power |
Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.
Mao Tse-tung, alternatively Zedong, Ze dong, aka Chairman Mao
Classes struggle, some classes triumph, others are eliminated. Such is history; such is the history of civilization for thousands of years. To interpret history from this viewpoint is historical materialism; standing in opposition to this viewpoint is historical idealism.
Civilization | History | Opposition |
There is this great danger in student life. Now, we rest all upon what Socrates said, or what Copernicus taught; how can we dispute authority which has come down to us, all established, for ages? We must at least question it; we cannot accept anything as granted, beyond the first mathematical formulae. Question everything else.
Mark Twain, pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens
Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.
Authority | Opportunity | Will |
Mark McCormack, fully Mark Hume McCormack
Delegation is the process of building up people, then letting go of a responsibility. It sounds easy, but it almost never is. Egos get in the way. People would rather be perceived as the authority than support the authority or expertise of the people who work for them.
The child, in fact, once he feels sure of himself, will no longer seek the approval of authority after every step.
Max Planck, fully Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck
There can never be any real opposition between religion and science; for the one is the complement of the other. Every serious and reflective person realizes, I think, that the religious element in his nature must be recognized and cultivated if all the powers of the human soul are to act together in perfect balance and harmony. And indeed it was not by accident that the greatest thinkers of all ages were deeply religious souls.
Accident | Balance | Nature | Opposition | Religion | Soul | Thinkers |
Mayer Rothschild, fully Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild
The few who understand the system, will either be so interested from it's profits or so dependent on it's favors, that there will be no opposition from that class.
Opposition | Will | Understand |
I see nothing wrong in the practice of a person who, knowing more than others in a specific game of truth, tells those others what to do, teaches them and transmits knowledge and techniques to others. The problem in such practices where power which is not in itself a bad thing must inevitably come into play is knowing how to avoid the kind of domination effects where a kid is subjected to the arbitrary and unnecessary authority of a teacher, or a student is put under the thumb of a professor who abuses his authority. I believe this problem must be framed in terms of law, rational techniques of government and ethos, practices of the self and freedom.
Authority | Government | Knowing | Knowledge | Nothing | Play | Power | Practice | Self | Wrong | Government |
Freedom of conscience entails more dangers than authority and despotism.
Authority | Conscience |
The imaginary is not formed in opposition to reality as its denial or compensation; it grows among signs, from book to book, in the interstice of repetitions and commentaries; it is born and takes shape in the interval between books. It is the phenomena of the library.
Opposition | Phenomena | Reality |
Mikhail Bakunin, fully Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin
Unity is the great goal toward which humanity moves irresistibly. But it becomes fatal, destructive of the intelligence, the dignity, the well-being of individuals and peoples whenever it is formed without regard to liberty, either by violent means or under the authority of any theological, metaphysical, political, or even economic idea. That patriotism which tends toward unity without regard to liberty is an evil patriotism, always disastrous to the popular and real interests of the country it claims to exalt and serve. Often, without wishing to be so, it is a friend of reaction – an enemy of the revolution, i.e., the emancipation of nations and men.
Authority | Enemy | Evil | Friend | Humanity | Liberty | Means | Nations | Patriotism | Regard | Unity |
Molly Ivins, fully Mary Tyler "Molly" Ivins
The problem with those who choose received Authority over fact and logic is how they choose which part of Authority to obey. The Bible famously contradicts itself at many points (I have never understood why any Christian would choose the Old Testament over the New), and the Koran can be read as a wonderfully compassionate and humanistic document. Which suggests that the problem of fundamentalism lies not with authority, but with ourselves.
Authority | Bible | Logic | Bible | Koran | Old Testament | Old |
A new State of Israel with broad frontiers, strong and solid, with the authority of the Israel Government extending from the Jordan to the Suez Canal.
Authority | Government | Government |
Charles De Montesquieu, formally Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu
The government of Rome was admirable. From its birth, abuses of power could always be corrected by its constitution, whether by means of the spirit of the people, the strength of the senate, or the authority of certain magistrates.
Authority | Government | Means | Power | Spirit | Strength | Government |
Mahatma Gandhi, fully Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, aka Bapu
Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.
Charles De Montesquieu, formally Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu
But constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go.