“... there is only one authority... that is the authority which truth itself possesses when it is perceived to be true by the individual concerned... the alternative procedure, the delegation to external authority, must itself follow an individual’s subjective decision.”
Source: The Christian Agnostic (1965), p.49, [ellipsis added]
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Leslie Weatherhead 81
English theologian 1893–1976Related quotes

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book I, On Production, Chapter XIV

1770s, A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774)

Reply to a letter sent to him on 17 July 1953 p. 39
Attributed in posthumous publications, Albert Einstein: The Human Side (1979)

Source: The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science (1962), Chapter 5: On Some Popular Errors Concerning the Scope and Method of Economics, § 10 : The Concept of a Perfect System of Government
Context: It is a double-edged makeshift to entrust an individual or a group of individuals with the authority to resort to violence. The enticement implied is too tempting for a human being. The men who are to protect the community against violent aggression easily turn into the most dangerous aggressors. They transgress their mandate. They misuse their power for the oppression of those whom they were expected to defend against oppression. The main political problem is how to prevent the police power from becoming tyrannical. This is the meaning of all the struggles for liberty.

Statement (18 March 1946) Cross Examination of Hermann Goering "Eighty-Fourth Day, Monday, 3/18/1946, Part 16" http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/Goering1.html in Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal Vol. IX. Proceedings: 3/8/1946-3/23/1946 (1947)