Verb
To clothe with authority, warrant, or legal power; to give a right to act; to empower; as, to authorize commissioners to settle a boundary.
To make legal; to give legal sanction to; to legalize; as, to authorize a marriage.
To establish by authority, as by usage or public opinion; to sanction; as, idioms authorized by usage.
To sanction or confirm by the authority of some one; to warrant; as, to authorize a report.
To justify; to furnish a ground for.
Source: Webster's dictionaryFreedom of speech means freedom for those who you despise, and freedom to express the most despicable views. It also means that the government cannot pick and choose which expressions to authorize and which to prevent. Alan Dershowitz
The Republican argument that raising the debt ceiling encourages additional future spending is logically irresponsible. The debt ceiling has to be raised to authorize spending already approved by Congress. Despite that fallacy, the GOP has been able to score political points with its argument. Eliot Spitzer
The absurd does not liberate; it binds. It does not authorize all actions. "Everything is permitted" does not mean that nothing is forbidden. Albert Camus
If you ask the question of Americans, should we pay our bills? One hundred percent would say yes. There's a significant misunderstanding on the debt ceiling. People think it's authorizing new spending. The debt ceiling doesn't authorize new spending; it allows us to pay obligations already incurred. Peter Welch
The urgent consideration of the public safety may undoubtedly authorize the violation of every positive law. How far that or any other consideration may operate to dissolve the natural obligations of humanity and justice, is a doctrine of which I still desire to remain ignorant. Edward Gibbon
Any government whose members commit this crime, or authorize it in their subordinates, has betrayed its function. Simone Weil