The 90 best phrases about authority and power

We all need a solid guide to be able to function regularly in our environment. Although we can see the rules as something tedious, in reality they contain a purpose: to influence respect and collective coexistence.

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Reflective phrases about power and authority

From the teachings of authority figures to the power we acquire when we become in autonomous people, in this article we bring a compilation with the best phrases about authority and can.

1. I need authority, even if I don't believe in it. (Ernst Jünger)

We all need rules to follow.

2. And there is no doubt that it is the people who confer authority or command. (Cornelio Saavedra)

The people elect their rulers.

3. All power is duty (Victor Hugo)

Anyone in power has to answer for it.

4. Do you want to meet a man? Invest him with great power. (Pitaco)

Power can corrupt.

5. All things are subject to interpretation, the interpretation that prevails at a given moment is a function of power and not of truth. (Friedrich Nietzsche)

Powerful people can change reality.

6. The worst thing is to educate by methods based on fear, force, authority, because sincerity and trust are destroyed, and only a false submission is achieved. (Bernardo Stamateas)

When authority is built on terror, a dictatorship is born.

7. Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely. (Lord Acton)

A clear phrase about the dark side of power.

8. The only law of authority is love. (Jose Marti)

We must let ourselves be guided by love.

9. Do you doubt the authority of charismatic leaders? in fact, they almost always lead to ruin. (Carl William Brown)

Not all leaders deliver what they promise.

10. It happens to power like the walnut tree: it does not let anything grow under its shadow. (Antonio Gala)

There are powers that, instead of benefiting, only destroy.

11. Most of us can endure adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, empower him. (Abraham Lincoln)

You meet someone not only in adversity, but also in power.

12. The truth is the daughter of time, not of authority. (Francis Bacon)

No authority should manipulate the truth.

13. The multitude, when it exercises its authority, is more cruel than the tyrants of the East. (Socrates)

Majorities can cruelly crush others.

14. Power that is supported only by force will often tremble. (Lajos Kossuth)

Nothing lasts forever when it is built on greed.

15. Power is of two kinds. One is obtained for fear of punishment and the other for acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent than that derived from fear of punishment. (Mahatma Gandhi)

The two facets of power.

16. You can lean on your post, but you can't sit on it. (Erich Kastner)

No authority should use your position to your personal advantage.

17. I am grateful not to be one of the wheels of power, but one of the creatures that are crushed by them. (Rabindranath Tagore)

Power hurts everyone.

18. Any authority not constituted in accordance with the law is illegitimate, and therefore, it has no right to govern nor is it obliged to obey it. (Juan Pablo Duarte)

A reflection on the power that comes through corruption.

19. Giving money and power to the government is like giving whiskey and car keys to a teenager. (Patrick James O'Rourke)

There are governments that do not know how to handle their authority.

20. With absolute power even a donkey finds it easy to rule. (Count of Cavour)

The danger of giving all power to someone.

21. An army of deer led by a lion is far more fearsome than an army of lions led by a deer. (Plutarch)

Kind people can also be feared.

22. All want to be masters, and no one the owner of himself. (Ugo Foscolo)

On materialistic power.

23. I do not want women to have more power than men, but to have more power over themselves (Mary Shelley)

When we are in control of ourselves, nothing can stop us.

24. The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any. (Alice Walker)

There are many who believe that they have no voice or vote in the world.

25. Commanders have the authority that you allow them to have. The more you obey, the more power they have over you. (Orson Scott Card)

A person has the power that you grant him.

26. The supreme test of virtue is to possess unlimited power without abusing it. (Thomas Macaulay)

A test that not all pass.

27. Every act of authority from man to man, which is not derived from absolute necessity, is tyrannical. (Cesare Beccaria)

Therefore you always have to maintain humility.

28. A boss must have eyes as pure as hands. (Plutarch)

In order not to be corrupted, it is necessary to remain humble.

29. The command and dominion is of those who won the battle. (Xenophon)

The most important being the battle against ourselves.

30. With power we maintain an ambiguous relationship: we know that if there were no authority we would we would eat each other, but we like to think that if governments did not exist, men would would hug. (Leonard Cohen)

Power is necessary but it is also dangerous.

31. He in whom the mass believes has power. (Ernst Raupach)

That is why the masses can be manipulated.

32. An authority based on terror, violence, oppression, is at the same time a shame and an injustice. (Plutarch)

There is nothing to be proud of in this situation.

33. Power is like an explosive: either handle carefully, or explode. (Enrique Tierno Galván)

If you want power, you must prepare for it.

34. The problem is not the authority but what that authority says. And for me the sayings are sacred. And the sayings are to respect the life and freedom of the other. I believe in that. (Marcelo Birmajer)

We must respect authority as long as it teaches us to be good people.

35. The temptation of power is the most diabolical thing that can stretch even man, even if Satan dared to propose Christ. With him she couldn't, but she manages with his assistants. (Ignazio Silone)

This kind of greed has driven many people into a rut.

36. Today's youth love luxury, have manias, and despise authority. They respond to their parents, cross their legs, and bully their teachers. (Socrates)

A reality that continues to resonate to this day.

37. A boss is a man who needs other men. (Paul Valéry)

An authority must rely on his companions.

38. Power resides where men believe it resides. No more no less. (George R. R. Martin)

Where does the power reside?

39. The attempt to combine wisdom and power has rarely been successful and only for a short time. (Albert Einstein)

Two concepts that do not seem to connect.

40. They can order the Moon to turn blue, but it will not change color for that. (Orson Scott Card)

Be careful what you want to impose.

41. If you intend to command one day with dignity, you must serve diligently. (Lord Chesterfield)

A leader should be someone who has fought from the bottom to the top.

42. All governments in fact, whatever their motives or reservations, are reduced to one or the other of these two formulas: Subordination of authority to freedom, or subordination of freedom to freedom authority. (Pierre Joseph Proudhon)

Governments and their authority.

43. It represents a strange desire to seek power and lose freedom. (Francis Bacon)

How much do you have to risk to have power?

44. Any power if it is not based on union, is weak. (Jean De La Fontaine)

In unity is strength.

45. Understanding authority in both modes depends on recognizing that "authority" is a broad term with two totally different meanings: it can be "rational" or "irrational." (Erich Fromm)

Each one sees and promotes authority according to his perception.

46. Power invariably means responsibility and danger. (Theodore Roosevelt)

An undeniable certainty.

47. Strength always attracts men of low morality. (Albert Einstein)

Power becomes the easy way out.

48. My life has been about defying authority, which I was taught as a child. Life is pure noise between two abysmal silences. Silence before birth, silence after death. (Isabel Allende)

There are traditions that need to be broken.

49. In the past, those who madly sought power by riding on the back of a tiger ended up within it. (John Fitzgerald Kennedy)

A reflection on people who drown in their own arrogance.

50. The position of the father or mother is that of one who, without any prejudice or diminution of her authority, humbly accepts the enormously important role of adviser or advisor to the son or daughter. (Paulo Freire)

The first and most important authority: our parents.

51. A friend in power is a lost friend. (Henry Adams)

A sample of what is lost by acquiring power.

52. When the boss can do what he wants, there is a great risk that he wants what he should not want. (Baldassare Castiglione)

When greed has no limits.

53. Rational authority is based on ability, and helps the person who relies on it to develop. Irrational authority is based on force and exploits the person subject to it. (Erich Fromm)

The two facets of authority.

54. The further he progressed in the story, the more sense of power he had. Knowledge of the secrets of others is a power that makes you drunk. (Michael Connelly)

Knowing the secrets of others grants severe power.

55. I am not interested in power for the sake of power, but I am interested in power that is moral, that is right, and that is good. (Martin Luther King Jr)

The kind of power we should all be looking for.

56. With kindness, authority is acquired.

When we act kindly, we can receive confidence.

57. Whoever can do everything must fear everything. (Pierre Corneille)

Things don't always go well.

58. My authority emanates from you and it ceases before your sovereign presence. (José Gervasio Artigas)

The authority is thanks to the need of the people.

59. Let those who have to lose send. (Vicente Blasco Ibáñez)

A governor must retain the most humane state of him.

60. When someone is feared it is because we have given that someone power over us. (Hermann Hesse)

The danger of giving a person more than he deserves from us.

61. The world itself is the will to power, and nothing else! And you yourself are the will to power, and nothing else! (Friedrich Nietzsche)

We all have the power to make a difference.

62. Excess severity produces hatred, as excess indulgence weakens authority. (Saadi)

The authority must be flexible but firm.

63. The most powerful man is the one who owns himself. (Seneca)

He conquers all your fears.

64. Laws that oppress people have no moral authority. (Richard Stallman)

The laws should not be to oppress the people.

65. A people is only allowed to guide when it is taught a future; a boss is a merchant of hopes. (Napoleon)

A guide should always offer a solution.

66. When three people march together, there has to be one to command. (Manchu proverb)

Every group needs a leader.

67. Whoever believes that the most enduring authority is better established by force than by friendly pact is deeply mistaken. (Terence)

Science ends up generating repulsion.

68. No matter how high the throne is, you are always sitting on your ass. (Michel E. From Montaigne)

An interesting reflection on the true condition.

69. No society can subsist without authority, without force and, therefore, without laws that moderate and control the desire for pleasure and unbridled impulses. (Baruch Spinoza)

A society without rules is an anarchy.

70. For those who want power, there is no middle way between the summit and the precipice. (Tacit)

The ambitious never measure the consequences of their actions.

71. Let us not be envious of those who are perched, because what seems height to us is a cliff. (Seneca)

Power is not always enjoyment, sometimes it is a burden.

72. The love of freedom is love of neighbor; the love of power is loving oneself. As soon as a person lacks delicacy, he has you in his power. (William Hazlitt)

Freedom must be given to all equally.

73. After power, there is nothing so exalted as knowing how to master its use. (Jean Paul Richter)

Many gain power only to turn it into chaos.

74. Power should not be attacked if you are not sure of destroying it. (Niccolo Machiavelli)

Talking about the rebellions.

75. There is that in the gaze of a flower that can sometimes control the greatest of the boastful lords of creation. (John Muir)

Nature always has the power to enchant us.

76. See who is above you as your father, and who is below as your son. (Iranian proverb)

A beautiful reflection on the perspective we have from those who guide us to whom we must guide.

77. Do not trade health for wealth, or freedom for power. (Benjamin Franklin)

Be careful what you wish for.

78. Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control; these three only bring life to sovereign power. (Alfred Lord Tennyson)

The true power.

79. By sending badly, the authority of the command is lost. (Publio Siro)

Consequences of poor governance.

80. Power permeates everything that is not power with indifference. (Enrique Tierno Galván)

Power is only interested in those who can perpetuate it.

81. Positions of responsibility make the eminent men still more eminent, and the vile, more vile and small. (Jean De La Bruyère)

Authority brings up the true nature of people.

82. The authorities are legitimate when they serve the good, they cease to be so when they cease to serve it. (Ramiro De Maeztu)

All authority must act well.

83. The command must be an annex to the exemplarity. (José Ortega Y Gasset)

It will be a good or a bad example.

84. Nothing strengthens authority more than silence. (Leonardo da Vinci)

Both to be obeyed and to increase their power.

85. Anarchy means society without authority, understanding by authority the power to impose one's own will. (Errico Malatesta)

The origin of anarchy.

86. Anyone is powerful to do. (Fray Luis de León)

We can all do what we want.

87. The true teacher hardly cares about discipline. The students respect him and listen to him, without his authority ever needing to abide by the rules or be exercised from the top of a podium. (José Carlos Mariátegui)

Another important authority figure. Teachers.

88. Criticism of the boss by the subordinate must be an accident, not a habit. (André Maurois)

All must be respected. Regardless of the hierarchy.

89. The masters of the town will always be those who can promise you a paradise. (Remy De Gourmont)

But, above all, that they can fulfill it.

90. Absolute power was and will always be the cause of the decline and misfortunes of the peoples, which sooner or later come to suffer the kings themselves. (Baron De Holbach)

Power can lead to misfortune.