“Do not be scared by the word authority.Believing things on authority only means
believing them because you have been told them by someone you think
trustworthy.Ninety-nine per cent of the
things you believe are believed on authority….Every historical statement in the
world is believed on authority.None of
us has seen the Norman Conquest or the defeat of the Armada.None of us could prove them by pure logic as
you prove a thing in mathematics.We
believe them simply because people who did see them have left writings that
tell us about them: in fact, on authority.A man who jibbed at authority in other things as some people do in
religion would have to be content to know nothing all his life.”(Mere Christianity, pg 63)
