“You cannot make a man by standing a sheep on its hind-legs. But by standing a whole flock of sheep in that position you can make a crowd of men. If man were not a gregarious animal, the world might have achieved, by this time, some real progress towards civilization. Segregate him, and he is no fool. But let him loose among his fellows, and he is lost —- he becomes a unit in unreason.”

—  Max Beerbohm

Source: Zuleika Dobson http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext99/zdbsn11.txt (1911), Ch. IX

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "You cannot make a man by standing a sheep on its hind-legs. But by standing a whole flock of sheep in that position you…" by Max Beerbohm?
Max Beerbohm photo
Max Beerbohm 36
English writer 1872–1956

Related quotes

Paul of Tarsus photo
D.H. Lawrence photo

“I can't stand Willy wet-leg,
can't stand him at any price.
He's resigned, and when you hit him
he lets you hit him twice.”

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter

Willy Wet Leg (1929)

Abraham Lincoln photo

“When you have got an elephant by the hind leg, and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Quoted by Charles A. Dana in his book [http://books.google.com/books?id=rxpCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA274&q=elephant
1860s

Donald Barthelme photo
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg photo

“Man can acquire accomplishments or he can become an animal, whichever he wants. God makes the animals, man makes himself.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) German scientist, satirist

F 49
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook F (1776-1779)

Albert Camus photo

“At this point of his effort man stands face to face with the irrational. He feels within him his longing for happiness and for reason. The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world.”

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), An Absurd Reasoning
Context: At this point of his effort man stands face to face with the irrational. He feels within him his longing for happiness and for reason. The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world. This must not be forgotten. This must be clung to because the whole consequence of a life can depend on it. The irrational, the human nostalgia, and the absurd that is born of their encounter — these are the three characters in the drama that must necessarily end with all the logic of which an existence is capable.

Thomas Carlyle photo

“In Christ you will find, a very dear Friend;
Who is of this mind, to love to the end;
Yet satan is seeking, His sheep to devour;
And God He is making some whole this bright hour.”

Dorothy Ripley (1767–1832) missionary

A Hymn From My Nativity (22 August 1819), p. 17
The Bank of Faith and Works United (1819)

Edgar Guest photo
Ivan Turgenev photo

Related topics