To obey is the proper office of a rational soul.

My duty is to obey orders.

Man, little as he may suppose it, is necessitated to obey superiors. He is a social being in virtue of this necessity; nay he could not be gregarious otherwise. He obeys those whom he esteems better than himself, wiser, braver; and will forever obey such; and even be ready and delighted to do it.

Only to the rational animal is it given to follow voluntarily what happens; but simply to follow is a necessity imposed on all.

"One must require from each one the duty with each one can perform," said the king. "Accepted authority rests first of all on reason. If you ordered your people to go and throw themselves into the sea, they would rise up in revolution. I have the right to require obedience because my orders are reasonable."

In nations where it exists, every individual takes an equal share in sovereign power and participates equally in the government of the state. Thus he is considered as enlightened, virtuous, strong as any of his fellow men. Why then does he obey society and what are the normal limits of his obedience? He obeys not because he holds an inferior position to those who run the administration or is less capable than his neighbor of self-government but because he recognizes the usefulness of his association with his fellow men and because he knows that this association cannot exist without a regulating power. While he has become a subject in all the mutual duties of citizens, he remains master in his own affairs where he is free and answerable only to God and his action. Out of that grows the general truth that the individual is the sole and best placed judge of his own private concerns and society has the right to control his actions only when it feels such actions cause it damage or needs to seek the cooperation of the individual.

If we’re being told to do stupid or cruel things, then it is morally correct to disobey.

One's obedience to God is proportionate to one's wisdom.

Reason obeys itselt; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.

He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command

Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.

A soldier's first duty is to obey, otherwise you might as well do away with soldiering.

Whoever desires to live among men has to obey their laws—this is what the secular morality of Western civilization comes down to. … Rationality in the form of such obedience swallows up everything, even the freedom to think.

Whoso obedience from his subjects seeks,
'Tis fitting that he first should learn to rule.