Stanley Milgram Quotes

The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority.

The risk to be percieved defines the duty to be obeyed.

I still don't like authority exercised without reason. But they laugh at you at Cambridge if you say that sort of thing. For them, the law is a system of rules not that different from mathematics.

The only requirement of a fan or a patient is the surrender to authority.

Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar? And the creature run from the cur. There thou mightst behold the great image of authority-a dog's obeyed in office.

How long would authority ... exist, if not for the willingness of the mass to become soldiers, policemen, jailers, and hangmen.

People are submissive to power, and few of them can be influenced by doctrines of righteousness.

Men submit from habit to everything that seeks power.

Relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.

The most powerful men were those who most effectively used the power of adult competence to enforce childish agreements.

'Because I said so!' They are the most underrated four words.

You know, you can't make the people do what you want them to do.

If children were brought up to become non-conformists it would only ruin their lives. So parents all over China who loved their children told them to do as Chairman Mao said. It was not possible to tell them anything else.

Authority figures are so irritating. Because they always tell you to do things for reasons that aren't very good. That sums up what authority is about for me.

Those who know the least obey the best.

My parents made it clear that I should never display even the slightest disrespect to individuals who had the power to let me skip a half grade or move into more challenging classes. While it was all right for me to know more about a topic than my sixth-grade teacher had ever learned, questioning her facts could only lead to trouble.

The most important message of a crucifix, to me anyway, was how unspeakably cruel supposedly sane human beings can be when under orders from a superior authority

When you make your peace with authority you become authority.

Conformity--the natural instinct to passively yield to that vague something recognized as authority.

Those who fear men like laws.

When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find that far more, and far more hideous, crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.

What is new in our time is the increased power of the authorities to enforce their prejudices.

The first day of 'Liberty,' I was hanging around waiting for Ford to come in. Everybody told me how tough he was and not to say anything, or he'd single you out and get on you the whole shoot. But as he walked in, I got up and saluted him.

We use language that has been designed to keep order, and to keep people in line.

The voice of authority speaks not for the one but for the many; authority figures have a strong and rapid effect on social norms in part because they change our assumptions about what other people think.