All authority must be out of a man's self, turned . . . either upon an art, or upon a man. - Francis Bacon,

Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.

Men suppose their reason has command over their words; still it happens that words in return exercise authority on reason

Nothing destroys authority more than the unequal and untimely interchange of power stretched too far and relaxed too much.

There is as much difference between the counsel that a friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as there is between the counsel of a friend and of a flatterer. For there is no such flatterer as is a man's self.

A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.