Abba Eban Quotes

Better be wrong with the many than right with the few.

Why should we pay so much attention to what the majority thinks?

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

The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformity.

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

The minority is sometimes right; the majority always wrong.

Politics is a herd mentality. Politicians don't really lead. Politicians reflect what they think is consensus opinion.

I've always been suspicious of collective truths.

If you can find something everyone agrees on, it's wrong.

Nothing is more obstinate than a fashionable consensus.

The multitude is always in the wrong.

So long as a minority conforms to the majority, it is not even a minority.

Singularity in the right hath ruined many; happy those who are convinced of the general opinion.

Worship of society and popular opinion is idolatry.

There is one characteristic of the present direction of public opinion, peculiarly calculated to make it intolerant of any marked demonstration of individuality. The general average of mankind are not only moderate in intellect, but also moderate in inclinations: they have no tastes or wishes strong enough to incline them to do anything unusual, and they consequently do not understand those who have, and class all such with the wild and intemperate whom they are accustomed to look down upon.

If we attach more importance to what other people believe than to what we know to be true - if we value belonging over being - we will not attain authenticity.

I've been amazed at how fast and herd-like opinions in the United States are.

Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to drink other men's thoughts, to speak other men's words, to follow other men's habits.

It does not prove a thing to be right because the majority say it is so.

Fame or perceived success - it all comes from groupthink.

The growing influence of focus groups means we are all in danger of being excessively cowed by their feedback.

Anyone who draws attention to himself as an individual, is viewed with suspicion. We acquired this tendency, of course, from America, and we must resist it: levelling, and imitation of what others are already doing.

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.

There is nothing in the world that I loathe more than group activity, that communal bath where the hairy and slippery mix in a multiplication of mediocrity.

In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.