 Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority.
– Lord Acton (1834-1902) |
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Tag Archives: authority
Samuel Butler (1612) – Authority intoxicates
| Authority intoxicates, And makes mere sots of magistrates; The fumes of it invade the brain, And make men giddy, proud, and vain; By this the fool commands the wise, The noble with the base complies, The sot assumes the rule of wit, And cowards make the base submit. – Samuel Butler (1612) (1612-1680) |
Carl Sagan – No other species on Earth does science
 There is no other species on the Earth that does science. It is, so far, entirely a human invention, evolved by natural selection in the cerebral cortex for one simple reason: it works. It is not perfect. It can be misused. It is only a tool. But it is by far the best tool we have, self-correcting, ongoing, applicable to everything. It has two rules. First: there are no sacred truths; all assumptions must be critically examined; arguments from authority are worthless. Second: whatever is inconsistent with the facts must be discarded or revised. We must understand the Cosmos as it is and not confuse how it is with how we wish it to be.
– Carl Sagan (1934-1996) |
Leonardo da Vinci – Reliance on authority uses memory
 Anyone who in discussion relies upon authority uses, not his understanding, but rather his memory.
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David Hume – Mankind governed by authority, not reason
 An established government has an infinite advantage by that very circumstance of its being established–the bulk of mankind being governed by authority, not reason, and never attributing authority to anything that has not the recommendation of antiquity.
– David Hume (1711-1776) |
Gautama Buddha – Believe nothing, no matter where
 Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
– Gautama Buddha (563 BC-483 BC) |
Mark Twain – Always acknowledge a fault frankly
 Always acknowledge a fault frankly. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you opportunity to commit more.
– Mark Twain (1835-1910) |
William Hazlitt – Vulgar versus natural prejudices
 Vulgar prejudices are those which arise out of accident, ignorance, or authority; natural prejudices are those which arise out of the constitution of the human mind itself.
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Carl Sagan – Education on the value of free speech
| Education on the value of free speech and the other freedoms reserved by the Bill of Rights, about what happens when you don’t have them, and about how to exercise and protect them, should be an essential prerequisite for being an American citizen – or indeed a citizen of any nation, the more so to the degree that such rights remain unprotected. If we can’t think for ourselves, if we’re unwilling to question authority, then we’re just putty in the hands of those in power. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us.
– Carl Sagan (1934-1996) |
Albert Einstein – To punish me for my contempt
 To punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself.
– Albert Einstein (1879-1955) |
Marcus Tullius Cicero – The authority of those who teach
 The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.
– Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC-43 BC) |
Plutarch – No stronger test of a man’s character
 It is an observation no less just than common that there is no stronger test of a man’s real character than power and authority, exciting, as they do, every passion, and discovering every latent vice.
– Plutarch |
