Question Authority?

"Unthinking respect
  for authority
  is the greatest
  enemy of truth.

    Albert Einstein

"No oppression is
  so heavy or lasting
  as that which is inflicted
  by the perversion and
  exorbitance of legal authority."
    ~ Joseph Addison ~

"We too often bind ourselves by authorities
  rather than by the truth."
    - Lucretia Coffin Mott

~Benjamin Franklin was often quoted as saying

"It is the first
  responsibility
  of every
  citizen to
  question
  authority."

Those who do not rightly question
authority may surrender to murder,
chaos, or fascism.
...Lest we forget.

If more people asked questions,
we might save millions of lives and
trillions of dollars needlessly squandered.

But too many voluntarily surrender to
fear, compromising their values in silence.

  tmf

"Nothing
  strengthens authority
  so much as silence."
    ~ Leonardo da Vinci


"The disappearance
  of a sense of
  responsibility
  is the most far-reaching
  consequence of
  submission to authority."
            Stanley Milgram

“The only thing
  necessary for
  the triumph of
  evil is for good men
  to do nothing” 

    Edmund Burke


"The ultimate authority must always
  rest with the individual's own
  reason and critical analysis."

    Dalai Lama

"A central lesson of science
  is that to understand complex
  issues (or even simple ones),
  we must try to free our minds
  of dogma and to guarantee the
  freedom to publish, to contradict,

  and to experiment.

  ...Arguments from authority
are unacceptable."
       Carl Sagan


"But man, proud man,
  Drest in a little brief authority,
  Most ignorant of
  what he’s most assur’d,

  His glassy essence,
  like an angry ape,
  Plays such fantastic tricks
  before high heaven,
  As make the angels weep."
    Measure for Measure.
    Act II. Sc. 2. L. 117.

"It is dangerous
  to be right in matters
  on which the
  established authorities
  are wrong."
    Voltaire

"No moral system can rest solely on authority."
    A J Ayer

"The vices of authority
  are chiefly four:
  delays, corruption,
  roughness, and facility."
    -Bacon, Francis,
    Viscount St Albans
     Essays, no.11,
     'Of Great Place'.



"Every great advance in natural knowledge
    has involved the absolute rejection of authority."
       Thomas Huxley

"Authority in science exists to be questioned,
  since heresy is the spring from which new ideas flow."
     — John C. Polanyi

"A position of authority is neither

  necessary nor sufficient
  for the exercise of leadership."
    Eric Werkowitz

"The faith that stands
on authority is not faith.”
    Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Unthinking respect for authority
  is the greatest enemy of truth.”
    Albert Einstein

"No statement should
  be believed because it
  is made by an authority.”
    Robert A. Heinlein

“Anyone who conducts
  an argument by
  appealing to authority
  is not using his intelligence”
    Leonardo da Vinci

“All authority belongs to the people”
    Thomas Jefferson

"I was bold in the
  pursuit of knowledge,
  never fearing to follow
  truth and reason
  to whatever results they led,
  and bearding every authority
  which stood in their way."

    Thomas Jefferson

"Men in authority will always think that
  criticism of their policies is dangerous.
  They will always equate their policies
  with patriotism, and find criticism subversive."
    Henry Steele Commager

“Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.”
    Howard Zinn

|"What you need is sustained outrage...
  there's far too much unthinking respect
  given to authority." 
    Molly Ivins

"The examples of vice at home corrupt
  us more quickly and easily than others,
  since they steal into our minds under
  the highest authority.
    Decimus (Junius Juvenalis)
Juvenal c.55-c.130
    Roman Satirical Poet

"An argument from authority
  is but a weak kind
  of proof,--it being but a
  topical probation, and
  an inartificial argument
 depending on
  naked asseveration."

    - Sir Thomas Browne

"Science is not perfect. It can be misused.
  It is only a tool. But it is by far the best tool we
  have, self-correcting, ongoing, applicable to everything.
  It has two rules. First: there are no sacred truths; all
  assumptions must be critically examined; arguments
  from authority are worthless. Second: whatever is
  inconsistent with the facts must be discarded or revised.
  ... The obvious is sometimes false; the unexpected is
  sometimes true.

     — Carl Sagan

"The reason why the simpler sort are moved
  by authority is the consciousness
  of their own ignorance."
    - Richard Hooker

"Authority has always
  attracted the lowest
  elements in the human race.
  All through history
  mankind has been
  bullied by scum.
  Those who lord it over
  their fellows and toss
  commands in every
  direction and would
  boss the grass in the
  meadow about which
  way to bend in the wind
  are the most depraved kind of prostitutes.
  They will submit to any indignity, perform
  any vile act, do anything to achieve power.
  The worst off-sloughings of the planet are
  the ingredients of sovereignty. Every
  government is a parliament of whores.
  The trouble is, in a democracy the whores are us."

    P. J. O'Rourke

"If you attack the establishment
  long enough and hard enough,
  they will make you a member of it."
    Art Buchwald

"The public school system:
  Usually a twelve-year
  sentence of mind control.
  Crushing creativity,
  smashing individualism,
  encouraging collectivism and compromise,
destroying the exercise of intellectual inquiry, twisting
  it instead into meek subservience to authority."
    Walter Karp
 

"Respect authority while questioning it.
    Randy Pausch

"The wisest have the most authority."
     Plato

"Perhaps nothing in our society
  is more needed for those in
  positions of authority
  than accountability."
    Larry Burkett