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Gustave Le Bon

Quote of Gustave Le Bon - The masses have never thirsted after...


Biography - Gustave Le Bon:

French polymath.
Born: 1841 - Died: 1931
Period:
20th century
19th century
Place of birth: France
France

The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.


Note 

Note




Quote source: The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind

Wikisource - Le Bon - Psychologie des foules (fr) 




Translation

Translation

(French, German)



French
Les foules n’ont jamais eu soif de vérité. Devant les évidences qui leur déplaisent, elles se détournent, préférant déifier l’erreur, si l’erreur les séduit. Qui sait les illusionner est aisément leur maître ; qui tente de les désillusionner est toujours leur victime.

German
Nie haben die Massen nach Wahrheit gedürstet. Von den Tatsachen, die ihnen missfallen, wenden sie sich ab und ziehen es vor, den Irrtum zu vergöttern, wenn er sie zu verführen vermag. Wer sie zu täuschen versteht, wird leicht ihr Herr, wer sie aufzuklären sucht, stets ihr Opfer.




See also 

See also...



We swallow with one gulp the lie that flatters us, and drink drop by drop the truth which is bitter to us.

The first and fundamental resistance is that of the spirit. It means resisting the intimidation of any lie asserted as truth, the contagion of any collective intoxication.

Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.

Men in general are quick to believe that which they wish to be true.

Truth does not do as much good in the world, as its counterfeits do evil.

It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.

Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.

The mind of man is so framed that it is rather taken with the false colors than truth.

It is very obvious that we are not influenced by “facts” but by our interpretation of the facts.




Quotes for: mistake


Quotes

Quotes about mistake:


Love truth, but pardon error.





What is tolerance? It is the endowment of humanity. We are all steeped in weakness and error; let us forgive each other our stupidities, that is the first law of nature.





Mistakes are, after all, the foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not.





Any man can make mistakes.





I would never die for my beliefs, because I might be wrong.





Without music, life would be a mistake.











Quotes for: truth


Quotes

Quotes for: truth


To be able to discern what is true as true and what is false as false — this is the mark and character of intelligence.





Love truth, but pardon error.





Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.





The language of truth is simple.





Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.





Truth prevails only to the extent that we successfully assert it. The victory of reason can only be the victory of rational people.











Quotes for: illusion


Quotes

Quotes for: illusion


A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts. So he loses touch with reality, and lives in a world of illusion.





The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.





Illusions fall away, like the peels of a fruit, one after another, and the fruit is experience.





Knowledge kills action; action requires the veils of illusion





I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.





The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.











Quotes

Gustave Le Bon also said...


To progress, it is not enough to want to act, one must first know in which direction to act.





The real democratic progress is not to lower the level of the elite toward that of the crowd, but to raise that of the crowd toward the elite.





By the mere fact that he forms part of an organised crowd, a man descends several rungs in the ladder of civilisation.





For it must not be supposed that merely because the justness of an idea has been proved it can be productive of effective action even on cultivated minds. This fact may be quickly appreciated by noting how slight is the influence of the clearest demonstration on the majority of men.





No need to be praised when you are sure of yourself. He who seeks praise doubts his own worth.





Competence without authority is as powerless as authority without competence.












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