Quote by Samuel Johnson
The accidental prescriptions of authority, when time has procured them veneration, are often confounded with the laws of nature, and those rules are supposed coeval with reason, of which the first rise cannot be discovered
Summary
This quote suggests that when authorities create laws or rules, and these rules gain respect over time, they are often seen as being unquestionably natural and logical. It highlights that people may mistakenly believe that these rules have always existed and are inherent to human reasoning when in reality, they were arbitrarily created by those in positions of power. The quote implies that we should be cautious in blindly accepting established norms as natural, and should critically examine their origins.
Topics
Authority
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