Nicolas Chamfort Quotes

The world chooses to think what the world thinks.

The multitude is always in the wrong.

I don't like it when people spout about the popular opinion just to make it louder.

If the majority of people were right, we'd be living in paradise. But we are not living in paradise, we are living in hell. What does it mean? That means the majority of people are wrong. So I never believed what people told me.

The minority is sometimes right; the majority always wrong.

While people are quick to praise the wisdom of the crowd, being an old-school journalist, I look at the wisdom of the crowd and know it can quickly turn into a mob mentality.

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

I always find myself very distrustful of intense crowd phenomena, and I think those are things that we should always try to question, especially critically.

I've always been suspicious of collective truths.

The herd instinct among forecasters makes sheep look like independent thinkers.

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

Men are herd animals, and prefer to go with the flow, especially when moving in the other direction is harsh.

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

In every generation, there's a strong tendency for everyone to think like everyone else.

There are many people for whom 'thinking' necessarily means identifying with existing trends.

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

Worship of society and popular opinion is idolatry.

Everybody's private motto: It's better to be popular than right.

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

Beware, all too often we say what we hear others say. We think what we are told that we think. We see what we are permitted to see. Worse, we see what we are told that we see.

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

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.

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