One could write a history of science in reverse by assembling the solemn pronouncements of highest authority about what could not be done and could never happen.
Robert A. Heinlein

Undermine their pompous authority, reject their moral standards, make anarchy and disorder your trademarks. Cause as much chaos and disruption as possible but don't let them take you ALIVE.
Sid Vicious

Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
John Adams

My relationship to power and authority is that I'm all for it. People need somebody to watch over them. Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave.
Arnold Schwarzenegger

He who is firmly seated in authority soon learns to think security, and not progress, the highest lesson in statecraft.
James Russell Lowell

I am certainly not an authority on love because there are no authorities on love, just those who've had luck with it and those who haven't.
Bill Cosby

Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.
Golda Meir

War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits.
James Madison

Destiny: A tyrant's authority for crime and a fool's excuse for failure.
Ambrose Bierce

Obedience to lawful authority is the foundation of manly character.
Robert E. Lee

Let us be true: this is the highest maxim of art and of life, the secret of eloquence and of virtue, and of all moral authority.
Henri Frederic Amiel

The man whose authority is recent is always stern.
Aeschylus

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.
Galileo Galilei

It vexes me when they would constrain science by the authority of the Scriptures, and yet do not consider themselves bound to answer reason and experiment.
Galileo Galilei

In order for a war to be just, three things are necessary. First, the authority of the sovereign. Secondly, a just cause. Thirdly, a rightful intention.
Thomas Aquinas

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.
Erich Fromm

Between a man and his wife nothing ought to rule but love. Authority is for children and servants, yet not without sweetness.
William Penn

All my authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Jesus Christ

His authority on earth allows us to dare to go to all the nations. His authority in heaven gives us our only hope of success. And His presence with us leaves us no other choice.
John Stott

Freedom of conscience entails more dangers than authority and despotism.
Michel Foucault