1.   Never imagine that rank confers genuine authority.

2.   A roving wiretap confers blanket authority to tap all phones a suspect uses, instead of requiring separate applications for each telephone.

3.   But instead of conferring the authority of the timeless classic, they raise the uneasy image of a clock with stuck hands.

4.   In most corporate deal-making, cash confers the authority to call the shots.

5.   One official said the United Nations was conferring its authority on countries with a vested interest in influencing the outcome.

6.   To her office, she is likely to wear blue, a color she says confers authority.

7.   Titles do not confer authority.