Gustave Le Bon quotes

“A crowd is not merely impulsive and mobile. Like a savage, it is not prepared to admit that anything can come between its desire and the realisation of its desire.”

“All the civilizations we know have been created and directed by small intellectual aristocracies, never by people in the mass. The power of crowds is only to destroy.”

“Are the worst enemies of society those who attack it or those who do not even give themselves the trouble of defending it?”

“If atheism spread, it would become a religion as intolerable as the ancient ones.”

“In crowds it is stupidity and not mother-wit that is accumulated.”

“Science has promised us truth... It has never promised us either peace or happiness.”

“The art of those who govern consists above all in the science of employing words.”

“The beginning of a revolution is in reality the end of a belief.”

“The conscious life of the mind is of small importance in comparison with its unconscious life.”

“The greater part of our daily actions are the result of hidden motives which escape our observation.”

“The masses have never thirsted after truth. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.”

“The precise moment at which a great belief is doomed is easily recognisable; it is the moment when its value begins to be called in question.”