Thomas a Kempis Quotes

No one is able to rule unless he is also able to be ruled.

They must be governed by and be subordinate to you.

We submit ourselves to rulers only if under rules.

Let them obey that knows not how to rule.

I am not blaming those who are resolved to rule, only those who show an even greater readiness to submit.

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

The only safe ruler is he who has learned to obey willingly.

It is much safer to obey than to rule.

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

Rulers come and go; governments end and forms of government change; but sovereignty survives.

A political society cannot endure without a supreme will somewhere.

He who demands does not command.

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

The silence of peoples is something kings should study.

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

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 think I'm a natural-born leader. I know how to bow down to authority if it's authority that I respect.

I am a collaborator with everyone who agrees that I need to be in control. I happily collaborate with my loyalists.

I don't mind how much my Ministers talk, so long as they do what I say.

'Tis hard to comprehend how one man can come to be master of many, equal to himself in right, unless it be by consent or by force.

No one is king by his own power.

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

They go where I tell them and do what I tell them.

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

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