On Authority Quotes

“Therefore, either one of two things: either the anti-authoritarians don't know what they're talking about, in which case they are creating nothing but confusion; or they do know, and in that case they are betraying the movement of the proletariat. In either case they serve the reaction.”
― Friedrich Engels, On Authority

“It is absurd to speak of the principle of authority as being absolutely evil, and of the principle of autonomy as being absolutely good. Authority and autonomy are relative things whose spheres vary with the various phases of the development of society.”
― Friedrich Engels, On Authority

“These gentlemen think that when they have changed the names of things they have changed the things themselves.”
― Friedrich Engels, On Authority

“Everywhere combined action, the complication of processes dependent upon each other, displaces independent action by individuals. But whoever mentions combined action speaks of organisation; now, is it possible to have organisation without authority?”
― Friedrich Engels, On Authority

“[Relationships of authority and subordination arise] independently of all social organization, [and] are imposed upon us together with the material conditions under which we produce and make products circulate.”
― Friedrich Engels, On Authority

“Supposing a social revolution dethroned the capitalists, who now exercise their authority over the production and circulation of wealth. Supposing, to adopt entirely the point of view of the anti-authoritarians, that the land and the instruments of labour had become the collective property of the workers who use them. Will authority have disappeared or will it have only changed its form?”
― Friedrich Engels, On Authority