No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.

To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction.

Does it follow that I reject all authority? Perish the thought. In the matter of boots, I defer to the authority of the boot-maker.

Anyone who in discussion relies upon authority uses, not his understanding, but rather his memory.

Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.

I grew up to always respect authority and respect those in charge.

Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.

Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt.

No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority.

To be free in an age like ours, one must be in a position of authority. That in itself would be enough to make me ambitious.

However sugarcoated and ambiguous, every form of authoritarianism must start with a belief in some group's greater right to power, whether that right is justified by sex, race, class, religion or all four. However far it may expand, the progression inevitably rests on unequal power and airtight roles within the family.