Obedience to lawful authority is the foundation of manly character.

... yes, religious authority is important, but you forget one thing. Without willpower, we would be slaves and with it, we would be rebels. Obedience, my friend, is the key to understanding willpower, and willpower therein lies the understanding of common man. Truly, to say that religion is unneeded... Commoners need heteronomous obedience. That much is sincere. Ideology? Don't make me laugh.

Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.

Why do you need that thing?" September asked. "None of the airports back home have them."
"They do. You just can't see them right," Betsy Basilstalk said with a grin. "All customs agents have them, otherwise, why would people agree to stand in line and be peered at and inspected? We all live inside the terrible engine of authority, and it grinds and shrieks and burns so that no one will say, lines on maps are silly. Where you live, the awful machinery is smaller, harder to see. Less honest, that's all. Whereas Rupert here? He's as honest as they come. Does what it says on the box.

The root of the word “integrity” is “integer.” It’s a math term - and it refers to whole numbers. The word itself implies “wholeness.” These are the questions we must ask ourselves frequently. “Am I whole?” “Are there parts of my character that are lacking?

The fear of some divine and supreme powers keeps men in obedience.