"Authority is quite degrading...." - Quote by Oscar Wilde
Authority is quite degrading.
More by Oscar Wilde
“Life is the art of being well deceived, and to succeed, it must be habitual and uninterrupted.”
“Really, this horrid House of Commons quite ruins our husbands for us. I think the Lower House by far the greatest blow to a happy married life that there has been since that terrible thing called the Higher Education of Women was invented.”
“Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.”
More on Authority
“If you demand my authorities for this and that, I must reply that only those who have never hunted up the authorities as I have believe that there is any authority who is not contradicted flatly by some other authority.”
“That we should obey laws whether good or bad is a new-fangled notion. There was no such thing in former days. The people disregarded those laws they did not like and suffered the penalties for their breach.”
“Do not be bullied out of your common sense by the specialist; two to one, he is a pedant.”
More on Power
“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force...Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”
“All the citizens of a state cannot be equally powerful, but they may be equally free”
“Power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achievepurpose... one of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites --- polar opposites --- so that love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with a denial of love... What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”