Gustave Le Bon quotes
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“Science has promised us truth...It has never promised us either peace or happiness.”
-- Gustave Le BonSource : 1895 Psychologie des foules, introduction.
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“If atheism spread, it would become a religion as intolerable as the ancient ones.”
-- Gustave Le Bon -
“The greater part of our daily actions are the result of hidden motives which escape our observation.”
-- Gustave Le BonSource : Gustave Le Bon (2013). “The Crowd”, p.17, Simon and Schuster
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“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.”
-- Gustave Le BonSource : Gustave Le Bon (2009). “The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind”, p.137, The Floating Press
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“The conscious life of the mind is of small importance in comparison with its unconscious life.”
-- Gustave Le BonSource : Gustave Le Bon (2013). “The Crowd”, p.17, Simon and Schuster
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“One of the most constant characteristics of beliefs is their intolerance. The stronger the belief, the greater its intolerance. Men dominated by a certitude cannot tolerate those who do not accept it.”
-- Gustave Le BonSource : Gustave Le Bon, Alice Widener (1979). “Gustave Le Bon, the man and his works: a presentation with introduction, first translations into English, and edited extracts”, Liberty Fund
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“Are the worst enemies of society those who attack it or those who do not even give themselves the trouble of defending it?”
-- Gustave Le BonSource : Gustave Le Bon (1899). “The Psychology of Socialism”, p.52, Transaction Publishers
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“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.”
-- Gustave Le BonSource : Gustave Le Bon (2012). “The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind”, p.27, Courier Corporation
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“We see, then, that the disappearance of the conscious personality, the predominance of the unconscious personality, the turning by means of suggestion and contagion of feelings and ideas in an identical direction, the tendency to immediately transform the suggested ideas into acts; these, we see, are the principal characteristics of the individual forming part of a crowd. He is no longer himself, but has become an automaton who has ceased to be guided by his will.”
-- Gustave Le BonSource : Gustave Le Bon (1960). “Psychologie des foules”, Penguin (Non-Classics)
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“The influence of the leaders is due in very small measure to the arguments they employ, but in a large degree to their prestige. The best proof of this is that, should they by any circumstance lose their prestige, their influence disappears.”
-- Gustave Le BonSource : Gustave Le Bon (2012). “The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind”, p.126, Courier Corporation
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“The images evoked by words being independent of their sense, they vary from age to age and from people to people, the formulas remaining identical. Certain transitory images are attached to certain words: the word is merely as it were the button of an electric bell that calls them up.”
-- Gustave Le BonSource : Gustave Le Bon (1947). “The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind”, p.57, Lulu.com
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“Crowds are somewhat like the sphinx of ancient fable: It is necessary to arrive at a solution of the problems offered by their psychology or to resign ourselves to being devoured by them.”
-- Gustave Le BonSource : Gustave Le Bon (2012). “The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind”, p.70, Courier Corporation
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“The art of those who govern consists above all in the science of employing words.”
-- Gustave Le BonSource : Gustave Le Bon (1947). “The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind”, p.59, Lulu.com
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“The precise moment at which a great belief is doomed is easily recognizable; it is the moment when its value begins to be called into question.”
-- Gustave Le BonSource : "The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind".
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“The beginning of a revolution is in reality the end of a belief.”
-- Gustave Le BonSource : Gustave Le Bon (1947). “The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind”, p.83, Lulu.com
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“The role of the scholar is to destroy chimeras, that of the statesman is to make use of them.”
-- Gustave Le Bon -
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“At the bidding of a Peter the Hermit millions of men hurled themselves against the East; the words of an hallucinated enthusiast such as Mahomet created a force capable of triumphing over the Graeco-Roman world; an obscure monk like Luther bathed Europe in blood. The voice of a Galileo or a Newton will never have the least echo among the masses. The inventors of genius hasten the march of civilization. The fanatics and the hallucinated create history.”
-- Gustave Le Bon
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