Harold MacMillan Quotes

There are certain times when public opinion is the worst of all opinions.

The minority is sometimes right; the majority always wrong.

Demands for solidarity can quickly turn into demands for groupthink, making it difficult to express nuance.

I've always been suspicious of collective truths.

Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled.

Unanimity of opinion is characteristic of savages and civilization only advances as more and more people have the right to call wrong what the majority calls right..

In a society of ideological believers, nothing is more ridiculous than the individual who doubts and does not conform.

When everyone is unanimous, I wonder whether they are right…. George, at every meeting henceforth I want you to make the most cogent and articulate argument against the war and I will never stop you.

It is long since I have learned to hold popular opinion of no value.

To rebel against a powerful political, economic, religious, or social establishment is very dangerous and very few people do it, except, perhaps, as part of a mob. To rebel against the “scientific” establishment, however, is the easiest thing in the world, and anyone can do it and feel enormously brave, without risking as much as a hangnail.

Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.

The important thing about groupthink is that it works not so much by censoring dissent as by making dissent seem somehow improbable.

Most of us believe everyone has a right to his own opinion - as long as it agrees with ours.

Being a wiseass in a groupthink environment is like throwing an egg at a bulldozer.

The nation was not founded by habitual groupthinkers. But it stands a fair chance of being destroyed by them.

I come more and more to the conclusion that one must take the side of the minority which is always the more intelligent one.

When your opinions start to coincide with those of the majority, it is time to reconsider your opinions.

How could I be anything but a dissenter? Who wants the opinion of a group?

When men exercise their reason coolly and freely, on a variety of distinct questions, they inevitably fall into different opinions, on some of them. When they are governed by a common passion, their opinions if they are so to be called, will be the same.

May God prevent us from becoming "right-thinking men"-that is to say men who agree perfectly with their own police.

Why do you necessarily have to be wrong just because a few million people think you are?

To accept opinions is to gain the good solid feeling of being correct without having to think.

I don't see the logic of rejecting data just because they seem incredible ... the establishment defends itself by complicating everything to the point of incomprehensibility.

Is there any point in public debate in a society where hardly anyone has been taught how to think, while millions have been taught what to think?

All the wisdom of the world consists of shouting with the majority.