“Public opinion reigns in society because stupidity reigns amongst the stupid.”
Reflections
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Nicolas Chamfort54
French writer 1741–1794Related quotes
“You can never underestimate the stupidity of the general public”
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“Obedience to public authority ought not to be based either on ignorance or stupidity.”
Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French
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“It's so, so stupid what we do to ourselves because we're afraid. It's so stupid.”
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Werner Herzog (1942) German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and opera director
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Pierre Boulez (1925–2016) French composer, conductor, writer, and pianist
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“Censorship, in my opinion, is a stupid and shallow way of approaching the solution to any problem.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)
Associated Press luncheon http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/all_about_ike/quotes.html#censorship (24 April 1950), New York City, New York <br class="br">1950s <br class="br">Context: Censorship, in my opinion, is a stupid and shallow way of approaching the solution to any problem. Though sometimes necessary, as witness a professional and technical secret that may have a bearing upon the welfare and very safety of this country, we should be very careful in the way we apply it, because in censorship always lurks the very great danger of working to the disadvantage of the American nation.
George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist
"Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels," Polemic (September/October 1946) - Full text online http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/swift/english/e_swift <br class="br">Context: In a Society in which there is no law, and in theory no compulsion, the only arbiter of behaviour is public opinion. But public opinion, because of the tremendous urge to conformity in gregarious animals, is less tolerant than any system of law. When human beings are governed by "thou shalt not", the individual can practise a certain amount of eccentricity: when they are supposedly governed by "love" or "reason", he is under continuous pressure to make him behave and think in exactly the same way as everyone else.