Wilhelm von Humboldt Quotes

Authority is something from which we are constantly subtracting, of which there remains always a residue, and which we attempt to make smaller and smaller.

And I particularly like the whole thing of being boss. Boss and employee... It's the slave quality that I find very alluring.

I always remember I'm the monkey and he's the organ-grinder.

If an individual is born with the obligation to obey, who is born with the right to command?

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

Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.

He who allows me to rule is in fact my master.

Every man needs slaves like he needs clean air. To rule is to breathe, is it not? And even the most disenfranchised get to breathe. The lowest on the social scale have their spouses or their children.

He who demands does not command.

He was in charge of everything and I was to be wherever he wasn’t.

Was there ever any domination which did not appear natural to those who possessed it?

Every organism, every human being, must conquer or serve.

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

It is better to be the slave of a master than to be a slave of a slave.

Colin Powell's committed to come into the house of the master. When Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture.

You are my creator, but I am your master; Obey!

Authority is not a quality one person 'has', in the sense that he has property or physical qualities. Authority refers to an interpersonal relation in which one person looks upon another as somebody superior to him.

I call the discourse of power any discourse that engenders blame, hence guilt, in its recipient.

Power never turns power down, ever, unless institutionally demanded.

A car is like a mother-in-law - if you let it, it will rule your life.

Don't talk to me about rules, dear. Wherever I stay I make the goddam rules.

Consequently, most of us really exist at the mercy of other people's formulations of what's important.

I think it is the easiest mentality for a human being to be either colonized or to colonize. The structure of either the slave or the master seems to be the simplest and the most relaxing one to slip into. Either you are a slave, and you don't have to think for yourself, or you're a master, and you don't have to work for yourself.

Every reign must submit to a greater reign.