Echoes

In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.

When an opinion has taken root in a democracy and established itself in the minds of the majority, it afterward persists by itself, needing no effort to maintain it since no one attacks it. Those who at first rejected it as false come in the end to adopt it as accepted, and even those who still at the bottom of their hearts oppose it keep their views to themselves, taking great care to avoid a dangerous and futile contest.

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.

In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place.

Once conform, once do what other people do because they do it, and a lethargy steals over all the finer nerves and faculties of the soul. She becomes all outer show and inward emptiness; dull, callous, and indifferent.

Must you value what others value, avoid what others avoid? How ridiculous!

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.

Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.

Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves.

It is not truth that makes man great, but man that makes truth great.

The most dangerous worldview is the worldview of those who have not viewed the world.

To consort with the crowd is harmful; there is no person who does not make some vice attractive to us, or stamp it upon us, or taint us unconsciously therewith.

You are neither right nor wrong because people agree with you.

The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.

Stubborn and ardent clinging to one's opinion is the best proof of stupidity.

To teach superstitions as truth is a most terrible thing.

There are no facts, only interpretations.

The sad truth of the matter is that most evil is done by people who never made up their minds to be or do either evil or good.

If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.

Whenever one tries to suppress doubt, there is tyranny.

All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and must never be accepted by self-respecting persons as final.

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie — a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days — but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please.