Jacques Maritain Quotes

My relationship to power and authority is that I'm all for it...People need somebody to watch over them.... Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave.

To rule means to exercise power, and only he who possesses power can exercise it. This direct connection of power and rule forms the fundamental truth of all politics and the key to all history.

We cannot distinguish truth from falsehood, right from wrong, or know what obedience we owe to the magistrate, or what we may justly expect from him, unless we know what he is, why he is, and by whom he is made to be what he is.... I cannot know how to obey unless I know in what, and to whom; nor in what unless I know what ought to be commanded; nor what ought to be commanded unless I understand the original right of the commander, which is the great arcanum.

It is not good to have a rule of many.

Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.

Tis a dainty thing to command, though twere but a flock of sheep.

I’m the constitution around here now.

Smash the lot of them …. Show them the fist. Prove yourself a sovereign. You are the autocrat and they should not dare to forget it.

The state is force incarnate, its essence is command and compulsion.

Headmasters have powers at their disposal which Prime Ministers have never yet been invested.

The people may be made to follow a path of action, but they may not be made to understand it.

No man has received from nature the right to give orders to others.

Would you rather lead an army of slaves?

I do not blame those who wish to rule the Athenians, but those who are over-ready to serve.

The exercise of authority is odious, and they who know how to govern, leave it in abeyance as much as possible.

Obey; this may be right; but beware of reverence.... Government is nothing but regulated force; force is its appropriate claim upon your attention. It is the business of individuals to persuade; the tendency of concentrated strength, is only to give consistency and permanence to an influence more compendious than persuasion.

In the last analysis, one must be a military man in order to govern. It is only with boot and spurs that one can govern a horse.

Force and right are the governors of this world; force till right is ready.

He that cannot obey, cannot command.

If you can't force or are unwilling to force your people to follow you, with or without threats, you are not a leader.

It is easy to rule over the good.

No man doth safely rule, but he that hath learned gladly to obey.

Violence can always destroy power; out of the barrel of a gun grows the most effective command, resulting in the most instant and perfect obedience. What never can grow out of it is power.

It is a great matter to be in authority over others; for authority, if it be rightly used, will make you feared beyond your actual resources.

Learn to obey before you command.