Heraclitus Quotes

The wise have always said the same things, and fools, who are the majority have always done just the opposite.

The 'wisdom of the crowds' is the most ridiculous statement I've heard in my life. Crowds are dumb.

I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

In science, as in art, and, as I believe, in every other sphere of human activity, there may be wisdom in a multitude of counsellors, but it is only in one or two of them.

Wisdom is not the province of only one party.

When I left NSA, it was with an understanding that you can never underestimate the power of large numbers of stupid people.

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

One voice may speak you false, but in many there is always truth to be found.

The herd of mankind can hardly be said to think; their notions are almost all adoptive; and, in general, I believe it is better that it should be so; as such common prejudices contribute more to order and quiet, than their own separate reasonings would do, uncultivated and unimproved as they are.

Truth and reason are common to everyone, and are no more his who spake them first than his who speaks them after.

. . .the larger the crowd, the more probable that that which it praises is folly, and the more improbable that it is truth; and the most improbable of all that it is any eternal truth.

It takes the whole church to know the whole truth.

Emphasizing the crowd means de-emphasizing individual humans in the design of society, and when you ask people not to be people, they revert to bad, mob-like behaviors.

He who hangs on the errors of the ignorant multitude, must not be counted among great men.

Crowds of minds can be wise, but crowds of bodies just aren't.

A sense of humour is common sense dancing.

Common sense is not too common.

The world is so full of simpletons and madmen, that one need not seek them in a madhouse.

No man has all the wisdom in the world; everyone has some.

We are accustomed to say, that the mass of men are unprepared; but improvement is slow, because the few are not materially wiser or better than the many.

The masses have no habit of self-reliance or original action.

Avoid the crowd, avoid mass audiences, keep your own counsel, which is the counsel of philosophy of wisdom you can acquire and make your own.

He who thinks himself wise, O heavens! is a great fool.

To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know.