Quotes About Influence

Man, like animals, has a natural tendency to imitation. Imitation is a necessity for him, provided always that the imitation is quite easy. It is this necessity that makes the influence of what is called fashion so powerful. Whether in the matter of opinions, ideas, literary manifestations, or merely of dress, how many persons are bold enough to run counter to the fashion?

Certainly it is possible that the advent to power of the masses marks one of the last stages of Western civilisation, a complete return to those periods of confused anarchy which seem always destined to precede the birth of every new society.

La multitud escucha siempre al hombre dotado de una fuerte voluntad. Ya que los individuos reunidos en masa pierden toda voluntad, se tornan instintivamente hacia aquel que la posee.

Personal interest is very rarely a powerful motive force with crowds, while it is almost the exclusive motive of the conduct of the isolated individual.

If, then, crowds often abandon themselves to low instincts, they also set the example at times of acts of lofty morality.

However great or true an idea may have been to begin with, it is deprived of almost all that which constituted its elevation and its greatness by the mere fact that it has come within the intellectual range of crowds and exerts an influence upon them.

Crowds being only capable of thinking in images are only to be impressed by images. It is only images that terrify or attract them and become motives of action.

To know the art of impressing the imagination of crowds is to know at the same time the art of governing them.

The power of crowds is to be dreaded, but the power of certain castes is to be dreaded yet more. Crowds are open to conviction; castes never are.

To-day the majority of the great men who have swayed men's minds no longer have altars, but they have statues, or their portraits are in the hands of their admirers, and the cult of which they are the object is not notably different from that accorded to their predecessors.

As soon as a certain number of living beings are gathered together, whether they be animals or men, they place themselves instinctively under the authority of a chief.

Las masas no tienen jamás sed de verdades. Ante las evidencias que las desagradan, se apartan, prefiriendo divinizar al error, si el error las seduce. Quien sabe ilusionarlas se convierte fácilmente en su amo; el que intenta desilusionarlas es siempre su víctima.

The crowd state and the domination of crowds is equivalent to the barbarian state, or to a return to it.

The functions of governments necessarily increase in proportion as the indifference and helplessness of the citizens grow.

The CASTE represents the highest degree of organisation of which the crowd is susceptible.

Medeniyetler ?imdiye kadar küçük bir fikir aristokrasisi taraf?ndan meydana getirilmi? ve idare olunmu?tur. Asla kitleler taraf?ndan de?il. Kalabal?klar yaln?z y?k?c? kuvvete sahiptirler.

While all our ancient beliefs are tottering and disappearing, while the old pillars of society are giving way one by one, the power of the crowd is the only force that nothing menaces, and of which the prestige is continually on the increase. The age we are about to enter will in truth be the ERA OF CROWDS.

Các dân t?c ??u b? tính cách c?a chính h? th?ng tr?; và t?t c? nh?ng thi?t ch? nào không ???c ?úc khuôn v?a v?n v?i tính cách ?y s? ch? là th? qu?n áo vay m??n, m?t th? gi? trang t?m th?i.

The type of hero dear to crowds will always have the semblance of a Caesar. His insignia attracts them, his authority overawes them, and his sword instils them with fear.

Judgments accepted by crowds are merely judgments forced upon them and never judgments adopted after discussion.

The crowd demands a god before everything else.

Ill-treat men as you will, massacre them by millions, be the cause of invasion upon invasion, all is permitted you if you possess prestige in a sufficient degree and the talent necessary to uphold it.

Men forming a crowd cannot do without a master, whence it results that the votes of an assembly only represent, as a rule, the opinions of a small minority.

The great leaders of crowds of all ages, and those of the Revolution in particular, have been of lamentably narrow intellect; while it is precisely those whose intelligence has been the most restricted who have exercised the greatest influence.