“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.”
Source: Psychologie des Foules [The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind] (1895)
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Gustave Le Bon 1
French psychologist 1841–1931Related quotes
Source: Miracles (1947), Ch. 1: "The Scope of this Book"
“Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.”
“Truth and beauty … yield themselves only to whoever surrenders to them—as to a rescuer.”
Source: The Second Light (1986), p. 133
“We live, after all, in a world where illusions are sacred and truth profane.”
Commentary essay, "For one day only, I'm a Lib Dem: We must take the politics of the anti-war front into the electoral arena," The Guardian, March 26, 2005 http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1445964,00.html#article_continue.
“But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine, is as”
Source: The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book I, Chapter VIII, p. 80.
Context: We rarely hear, it has been said, of the combinations of masters, though frequently of those of the workman. But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the subject.
“All goes on as before, as always. Illusions, illusions.”
Interview with Oriana Fallaci in The Chicago Tribune (24 June 1973).
Context: Democracy, republics: What do these words signify? What have they changed in the world? Have men become better, more loyal, kinder? Are the people happier? All goes on as before, as always. Illusions, illusions. Besides, one should consider the interest of a nation before subverting it with words. Democracy is necessary in some cases and We believe some African peoples might adopt it. But in other cases it is harmful, a mistake.