Quotes about masses

"What will happen once the authentic mass man takes over, we do not know yet, although it may be a fair guess that he will have more in common with the meticulous, calculated correctness of Himmler than with the hysterical fanaticism of Hitler, will more resemble the stubborn dullness of Molotov than the sensual vindictive cruelty of Stalin."

Arendt, Hannah on masses   

"The adjustment of reality to the masses and of the masses to reality is a process of unlimited scope, as much for thinking as for perception."

Benjamin, Walter on masses   

"Civilization exists precisely so that there may be no masses but rather men alert enough never to constitute masses."

Bernanos, Georges on masses   

"The only freedom supposed to be left to the masses is that of grazing on the ration of simulacra the system distributes to each individual."

Certeau, Michel De on masses   

"The multitude of fools is a protection to the wise."

Cicero, Marcus T. on masses   

"The English masses are lovable: they are kind, decent, tolerant, practical and not stupid. The tragedy is that they are too many of them, and that they are aimless, having outgrown the servile functions for which they were encouraged to multiply. One day these huge crowds will have to seize power because there will be nothing else for them to do, and yet they neither demand power nor are ready to make use of it; they will learn only to be bored in a new way."

Connolly, Cyril on masses   

"The general interest of the masses might take the place of the insight of genius if it were allowed freedom of action."

Diderot, Denis on masses   

"The masses have no habit of self reliance or original action."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on masses   

"Leave this hypocritical prating about the masses. Masses are rude, lame, unmade, pernicious in their demands and influence, and need not to be flattered, but to be schooled. I wish not to concede anything to them, but to tame, drill, divide, and break them up, and draw individuals out of them."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on masses
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"The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd."

Epicurus on masses
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"The mass believes that it has the right to impose and to give force of law to notions born in the caf"

Gasset, Jose Ortega Y on masses   

"This leads us to note down in our psychological chart of the mass-man of today two fundamental traits: the free expansion of his vital desires, and, therefore, of his personality; and his radical ingratitude towards all that has made possible the ease of his existence. These traits together make up the well-known psychology of the spoilt child."

Gasset, Jose Ortega Y on masses   

"None of us know all the potentialities that slumber in the spirit of the population, or all the ways in which that population can surprise us when there is the right interplay of events."

Havel, Vaclav on masses   

"There is a grandeur in the uniformity of the mass. When a fashion, a dance, a song, a slogan or a joke sweeps like wildfire from one end of the continent to the other, and a hundred million people roar with laughter, sway their bodies in unison, hum one song or break forth in anger and denunciation, there is the overpowering feeling that in this country we have come nearer the brotherhood of man than ever before."

Hoffer, Eric on masses   

"Masses are always breeding grounds of psychic epidemics."

Jung, Carl on masses   

"No amount of political freedom will satisfy the hungry masses."

Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich on masses   

"The only power deserving the name is that of masses, and of governments while they make themselves the organ of the tendencies and instincts of masses."

Mill, John Stuart on masses   

"The multitude is always wrong."

Proverb on masses   

"The voice of the majority is no proof of justice."

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von on masses
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"Nothing is so contemptible as the sentiments of the mob."

Seneca on masses   

"For men tied fast to the absolute, bled of their differences, drained of their dreams by authoritarian leeches until nothing but pulp is left, become a massive, sick Thing whose sheer weight is used ruthlessly by ambitious men. Here is the real enemy of the people: our own selves dehumanized into the masses. And where is the David who can slay this giant?"

Smith, Lillian on masses   

"The mass never comes up to the standard of its best member, but on the contrary degrades itself to a level with the lowest."

Thoreau, Henry David on masses   

"The human animal cannot be trusted for anything good except en masse. The combined thought and action of the whole people of any race, creed or nationality, will always point in the right direction."

Truman, Harry S on masses   

"The mind of the people is like mud, from which arise strange and beautiful things."

Turner, W. J. on masses   

"The master minds of all nations, in all ages, have sprung in affluent multitude from the mass of the nation, and from the mass of the nation only -- not from its privileged classes."

Twain, Mark on masses   

"If you see ninety-nine people running one way and three going the opposite, don't be too quick to join the majority."

Unknown, Source on masses   

"Our leading men are not of much account and never have been, but the average of the people is immense, beyond all history. Sometimes I think in all departments, literature and art included, that will be the way our superiority will exhibit itself. We will not have great individuals or great leaders, but a great average bulk, unprecedentedly great."

Whitman, Walt on masses   

"I have witnessed the tremendous energy of the masses. On this foundation it is possible to accomplish any task whatsoever."

Zedong, Mao on masses   

"Take the ideas of the masses (scattered and unsystematic ideas) and concentrate them (through study turn them into concentrated and systematic ideas), then go to the masses and propagate and explain these ideas until the masses embrace them as their own, hold fast to them and translate them into action, and test the correctness of these ideas in such action. Then once again concentrate ideas from the masses and once again go to the masses so that the ideas are persevered in and carried through. And so on, over and over again in an endless spiral, with the ideas becoming more correct, more vital and richer each time. Such is the Marxist theory of knowledge."

Zedong, Mao on masses