Abel Ferrara Quotes

A lot of people believe that if everybody just did what they were told - obeyed - everything would be fine. But that's not what life is all about. That's not real. It's never going to happen.

The kids are not brought up to have minds of their own as individuals.

Religion works on some people but not on everyone, because it says, 'Stop thinking and accept what I tell you.' That's not valid for people who want to think and reflect.

The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.

Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.

I don't substitute anybody else's judgment for my own.

The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.

If you want to be told what to think, well, I'm not in that business.

A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.

Children who know how to think for themselves spoil the harmony of the collective society…

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

If you're just a follower, you never know why you are doing something. Then you can't know if something is good or not. How would you know that what you thought is right, if you didn't think it?

Each of you, as an individual, must pick your own goals. Listen to others, but do not become a blind follower.

I'd never jump on a bandwagon; sometimes people do that and it's not what I wanted to do.

If I had followed the multitude, I should not have studied philosophy.

Just because everybody else does something isn't a good enough reason to do anything.

Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking.

It is surely time for men to think for themselves, and to throw off the authority of names so artificially magnified.

Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.

All the great masters in the world have been saying only one thing down the centuries, "Have your own mind and have your own individuality. Don't be a part of the crowd; don't be a wheel in the whole mechanism of a vast society. Be individual, on your own. Live life with your own eyes; listen to music with your own ears." But we are not doing anything with our own ears, with our own eyes, with our own minds; everything is being taught, and we are following it.

I hate the idea of always having to interpret other people's ideas and thoughts and words, because I'm very independent and, I guess, a free thinker.

Masses are rude, lame, unmade, pernicious in their demands and influence, and need not to be flattered, but to be schooled. I wish not to concede anything to them, but to tame, drill, divide, and break them up, and draw individuals out of them.

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

Everyone should have the opportunity of not being over-influenced.

People are never so likely to be wrong as when they are organized. And they never have so little freedom. Perhaps that is why the people at large keep their freedom. People can be manipulated only when they are organized.