Influence of Authority Quotes

It's very hard to look in the mirror. We all know this. It's much easier to have illusions about yourself. And in particular, when you think, well, I'm going to believe what I like, but I'll say what the powerful want, you do that over time, and you believe what you say.

In the long run my observations have convinced me that some men, reasoning preposterously, first establish some conclusion in their minds which, either because of its being their own or because of their having received it from some person who has their entire confidence, impresses them so deeply that one finds it impossible ever to get it out of their heads.

In religion and politics, people's belief's and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination

In the United States, though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes.

Who we listen to determines what we hear. Where we stand determines what we see. What we do determines who we are.

No one can estimate the power of authority among poor and uneducated people in a world whose problems confuse even the wisest.

Experience has taught us that men will not adopt and carry into execution measures the best calculated for their own good without the intervention of a coercive power.

I don't think people in power have the potential to do anything like that to me. I feel as though as long as our music is available, folks are going to hear it.

There is nothing sooner overthrows a weak head than opinion by authority, like too strong a liquor for a frail glass.

In the hands of a skillful indoctrinator, the average student not only thinks what the indoctrinator wants him to think . . . but is altogether positive that he has arrived at his position by independent intellectual exertion. This man is outraged by the suggestion that he is the flesh-and-blood tribute to the success of his indoctrinators.

No art can conquer the people alone-the people are conquered by an ideal of life upheld by authority.

I can't go into a mob scene and sense the mood and the attitude of the crowd. I can't conduct man-on-the-street interviews or even get reactions that I can be sure are honest, because they know who I am.

When people in authority want the rest of us to behave, it matters-first and foremost-how they behave.

The power of authority is never more subtle and effective than when it produces a psychological atmosphere or climate favorable to the life of certain modes of belief, unfavorable, and even fatal, to the life of others.

The military and the clergy cause us much annoyance; the clergy and the military, they empty our wallets and rob our intelligence.