50 Obedience Quotes For Staying True To Yourself

By Clifton Sankofa

School Leader, Language Arts Expert & Master Quote Curator

Published August 20, 2023

Check out our obedience quotes to learn more about the psychology of obedience.

What does it mean when someone says they are obedient to something?

Find out with our obedience quotes below.

What is obedience?

There are various definitions for obedience.

In the religious sense, a person may choose obedience to a

God
Spiritual figure or Guru
A lifestyle or spiritual path

What is spiritual obedience?

For those walking the religious path, remaining obedient to a God, spiritual figure, or lifestyle means remaining within compliance or submission to whatever you consider to be your authority.

What is psychological obedience?

In the psychological sense, obedience is a form of social influence that involves performing an action under the orders of an authority figure.

Is obedience the same thing as compliance or conformity?

No, obedience is different from conformity and compliance.

Compliance involves changing your behavior at the request of another person.

Conformity involves altering your behavior to get along with the rest of the group.

Obedience involves altering your behavior because an authority figure has told you so.

What have psychologists learned from obedience experiments?

Over the years, scientists have conducted various experiments studying how humans work with obedience.

During the 1950s, psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted experiments to determine how individuals respond to group pressure from others.

In an attempt to determine if those who participated in the Holocaust were “just following orders” as they were commanded.

Milgram set up an experiment to determine how people respond to authority.

In what is famously known as the Milgram experiments, he found that 65% of the participants were willing to deliver a painful electrical shock to other participants just because they were told to do so.

The study suggests that the majority of people are willing to hurt others.

The Zimbardo prison experiment

The alarming results of this study led to the Zimbardo prison experiment at Stanford University.

This study put participants in a prisoner and prison role.

The experiment got so bad it had to be terminated early.

The participants in the guard roles immediately used harassment, torture, and physical abuse to get the other participants to be obedient.

To learn more, check out our obedience quotes.

Short obedience quotes about mastering the ego

These quotes remind us that demonstrating obedience takes discipline.

1. “True obedience is true freedom.” — Henry Ward Beecher

2. “Obedience shows whether you are grateful.” — Catherine Of Siena

3. “Obedience alone gives the right to command.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

4. “You cannot be a true man until you learn to obey.” — Robert E. Lee

5. “Obedience of the law is demanded; not asked as a favor.” — Theodore Roosevelt

6. “When you obey your superiors, you instruct your inferiors.” — R. Dodsley

7. “It is not hard to obey when we love the one whom we obey.” — Saint Ignatius

8. “Obedience is the mother of success, and the wife of security.” — Aeschylus

9. “A great work is made out of a combination of obedience and liberty.” — Nadia Boulanger

10. “Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The top obedience quotes to live by

Here are some thought-provoking obedience quotes you will enjoy.

11. “Obedience is a disciple’s first duty.” — Ignatius Loyola

12. “Obedience is less painful than regret.” — Christine Caine

13. “Obedience completes itself in understanding.” — Phillips Brooks

14. “Spiritual advancement is measured by faithful obedience.” — Watchman Nee

15. “Obedience is the primary object of all sound education.” — Elizabeth Missing Sewell

16. “The only safe ruler is he who has learned to obey willingly.” — Thomas a Kempis

17. “It is difficult to press forward if we do not know how to obey.” — Gordon B. Hinckley

18. “The ship that will not obey the helm will have to obey the rocks.” — English Proverb

19. “If we are really going to learn from others, we must decide to fully obey.” — Ed Townsend

20. “What God says is best, is best, though all the men in the world are against it.” — John Bunyan

The best obedience quotes for following the rules

Here are some quotes that express the power of obedience.

21. “Obedience is the fruit of faith.” — Christina Rossetti

22. “One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

23. “Obedience to lawful authority is the foundation of manly character.” — Robert E. Lee

24. “Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men. — Douglas Bader

25. “Be obedient even when you do not know where obedience may lead you.” — Sinclair B. Ferguson

26. “Blind obedience is a sign of weakness. Faithful obedience is a sign of strength.”
— Bob Lonsberry

27. “He who obeys with modesty appears worthy of being someday a commander.” — Cicero

28. “Grades don’t measure anything other than your relevant obedience to a manager.” — John Taylor Gatto

29. “A person is bound to work in obedience to and in conformity to that person’s own nature.” — Mahatma Gandhi

30. “Because of the Chinese culture of obedience, you don’t ask questions. You follow and obey.” — Bai Ling

Obedience quotes and sayings about life

Enjoy these interesting obedience quotes.

31. “Obedience is the crown and honor of all virtue.” — Martin Luther

32. “I was not born to be free. I was born to adore and obey”. — C. S. Lewis

33. “Be obedient to your superior, and your inferior will obey you.” — Muhammad Ali

34. “Obedience to God is the pathway to the life you really want to live.” — Joyce Meyer

35. “For there is no obedience without humility, nor humility without charity.” — St. Catherine of Siena

36. “Obedience, which is a proof of love, must be cheerful, for love obeyeth with delight.” — J.R. Doolittle

37. “The bottom line in the Christian life is obedience, and most people don’t even like the word.” — Charles Stanley

38. “Society is well governed when the people obey the magistrates, and the magistrates obey the law.” — Solon

39. “A blind obedience in some cases doth well, but it doth far better when it is led with the eyes of discretion.” — Joseph Hall

40. “Obey something, and you will have a chance to learn what is best to obey. But if you begin by obeying nothing, you will end by obeying the devil and all his invited friends.” — John Ruskin

Famous obedience quotes for humility

Let’s close our list with these thoughtful quotes about obedience.

41. “Obedience leads to true freedom.” — James E. Faust

42. “Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.” — Benjamin Franklin

43. “God’s promises are all on condition of humble obedience.” — Ellen G. White

44. “Obedience brings success; exact obedience brings miracles.” — Russell M. Nelson

45. “Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men.” — Harry Day

46. “Obedience is an act of faith; disobedience is the result of unbelief.” — Edwin Louis Cole

47. “Every great person has first learned how to obey, whom to obey, and when to obey.”
— William Arthur Ward

48. “Above all, remember that God looks for solid virtues in us, such as patience, humility, obedience.” — Saint Ignatius

49. “Prayer is good: but when used as a substitute for obedience, it is naught but a blatant hypocrisy, a despicable Pharisaism.” — Charles Studd

50. “There are hunters, and there are victims. By your discipline, cunning, obedience, and alertness, you will decide if you are a hunter or a victim.” — Jim Mattis