Nicolas Chamfort Quotes

The opinion of the majority is not lightly to be rejected; but neither is it to be carelessly echoed.

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

And that which yesterday was the novel opinion of one man, to-day becomes the general opinion of the majority. And as soon as this opinion is established, immediately by imperceptible degrees, but beyond power of frustration, the conduct of mankind begins to alter.

The minority is sometimes right; the majority always wrong.

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd.

That which has always been accepted by everyone, everywhere, is almost certain to be false.

What the multitude says is so, or soon will be.

What fundamental biological principle gives the majority the right to think they are preserved from error?

Majorities are generally wrong, if only in their reasons for being right.

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

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

Everybody said so. Far be it from me to assert that what everybody says must be true. Everybody is, often, as likely to be wrong as right.

Anybody who French bashes just might as well wear a badge that says 'I am a follower! I don't think for myself and I have no idea what I'm talking about.' That would be a French basher.

If the majority holds some thing of value, you can be certain it has none.

There is nothing so wrong as accepting a thing merely because men who have done things say it should be so.

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

“I would rather err with the majority than in my own way.” So thought Saint Augustine. I am of the reverse opinion.

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

Does history record any case in which the majority was right?

There can be no assumption that today’s majority is “right”.

I am the mainstream.

Status quo just means that everyone's doing it. It doesn't mean that this was divinely ordained, and of course this is the right decision.

We're constantly being fed images and being told what to like and what is good, and for the most part, I think people enjoy living that way. It takes a lot of the thinking out of it.

Being mainstream is fun.

It's characteristic of democracy that majority rule is understood as being effective not only in politics but also in thinking. In thinking, of course, the majority is always wrong.