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obedience quotes

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“Obedience to the law is demanded as a right; not asked as a favor.” Theodore Roosevelt, State of the Union Address
“The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master, unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
“Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?” Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience
“There are roads which must not be followed, armies which must be not attacked, towns which must not be besieged, positions which must not be contested, commands of the sovereign which must not be obeyed.” Sun Tzu, The Art of War
“Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new...” George Orwell, 1984
“But we must remember that good laws, if they are not obeyed, do not constitute good government.” Aristotle, Politics
“The public weal requires that men should betray, and lie, and massacre; let us leave this commission to men who are more obedient and more supple.” Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Michel de Montaigne
“Thou art my father, thou my author, thou my being gav'st me; whom should I obey but thee? whom follow?” John Milton, Paradise Lost
“Our cause is never more in danger, than when a human, no longer desiring, but intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
“the woman does not work because the man tells her to work and she obeys. On the contrary, the woman works because she has told the man to work and he hasn't obeyed.” G. K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World
“I'm not thinking. I'm just doing like I'm told, like always.” Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
“Men are not corrupted by the exercise of power or debased by the habit of obedience, but by the exercise of a power which they believe to be illegal and by obedience to a rule which they consider to be usurped and oppressive.” Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
“Where there is energy to command well enough, obedience never fails.” Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
“Full of clattering buffoons is the market-place,—and the people glory in their great men! These are for them the masters of the hour.” Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
“It's not through obedience that men go out of their way to get killed—nor through obedience that they kill. … Except cowards.” André Malraux, Man's Fate
“I'm of your making much more than you ever were of mine. I'm the man who married one woman because another one told him to.” Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence
“Food and fire, protection and companionship, were some of the things he received from the god. In return, he guarded the god's property, defended his body, worked for him, and obeyed him.”
“any allegiance to a deity or concept or universal principle which put obedience above decent behavior toward an innocent human being was evil.” Dan Simmons, Hyperion
“Existence was really very simple when you did what you were told.” William Goldman, The Princess Bride
“a man with a club was a lawgiver, a master to be obeyed, though not necessarily conciliated.” Jack London, The Call of the Wild
“When a mystery is too overpowering, one dare not disobey.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
“Make me into anything, but just love me.” Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters
“I’m putting you in Dink Meeker’s toon. From now on, as far as you’re concerned, Dink Meeker is God.” Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game
“Yet command and obedience are but unfortunate necessities of human life: society in equality is its normal state.” John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women
“Thus it was that in obedience to the law laid down by his mother, and in obedience to the law of that unknown and nameless thing, fear, he kept away from the mouth of the cave.” Jack London, White Fang
“When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right which the majority has of commanding, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of mankind.” Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
“White Fang knew the law well: to oppress the weak and obey the strong.” Jack London, White Fang
“But there were other forces at work in the cub, the greatest of which was growth. Instinct and law demanded of him obedience. But growth demanded disobedience.” Jack London, White Fang
“Fear is strange soil. Mainly it grows obedience like corn, which grows in rows and makes weeding easy. But sometimes it grows the potatoes of defiance, which flourish underground.” Terry Pratchett, Small Gods

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liberty law power government strength fear work right energy sovereignty justice love equality duty corruption women stupidity religion pain weakness

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Alexis de Tocqueville (2)
Jack London (5)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1)
George Orwell (1)
Sun Tzu (1)
Aristotle (1)
Henry David Thoreau (1)
Chuck Palahniuk (1)
John Stuart Mill (1)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1)
Terry Pratchett (1)
C. S. Lewis (1)
Michel de Montaigne (1)
Ray Bradbury (1)
G. K. Chesterton (1)
Theodore Roosevelt (1)
John Milton (1)
Orson Scott Card (1)
Edith Wharton (1)
William Goldman (1)

Related sources

White Fang (4)
Democracy in America (2)
The Social Contract (1)
Civil Disobedience (1)
1984 (1)
The Art of War (1)
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1)
Paradise Lost (1)
The Little Prince (1)
The Subjection of Women (1)
Jane Eyre (1)
State of the Union Address (1)
Fahrenheit 451 (1)
The Essays of Michel de Montaigne (1)
Invisible Monsters (1)
The Screwtape Letters (1)
Politics (1)
Small Gods (1)
The Age of Innocence (1)
Hyperion (1)