Mob Psychology Quotes

'Crowd folly', the tendency of humans, under some circumstances, to resemble lemmings, explains much foolish thinking of brilliant men and much foolish behavior - like investment management practices of many foundations represented here today. It is sad that today each institutional investor apparently fears most of all that its investment practices will be different from practices of the rest of the crowd.

Wherever there is a crowd there is untruth.

In crowds it is stupidity and not mother wit that is accumulated.

Anyone taken as an individual is tolerably sensible and reasonable - as a member of a crowd, he at once becomes a blockhead.

Meditation is the art of awareness. And once you are aware, out of your awareness your actions will arise - not out of conscience. Conscience is cultivated by others, by the vested interests, by the establishment. Consciousness is yours. It is individual, it is not collective. Conscience is part of the mob psychology. Consciousness gives you dignity because it gives you individuality. It gives you rebellion, it makes you capable of saying yes or no of your own accord. There is no foreign agency manipulating you in the name of religion, morality, etcetera.

Once the herd starts moving in one direction, it's very hard to turn it, even slightly.

Collective madness is called sanity.

Crowds create illusions.

The majority cannot reason; it has no judgement. It has always placed its destiny in the hands of others; it has followed its leaders even into destruction. The mass has always opposed, condemned, and hounded the innovator, the pioneer of a new truth.

. . .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.

The sight of blood to crowds begets the thirst of more, As the first wine-cup leads to the long revel.

We have yet to learn how to retain our humaneness when assembled in masses.

Mankind are a herd of knaves and fools. It is necessary to join the crowd, or get out of their way, in order not to be trampled to death by them.

It is a well- known fact that although the public is fine when taken individually, when it forms itself into large groups, it tends to act as though it has one partially consumed Pez tablet for a brain.

We're all sheep and lemmings to some degree.

Many of those engaged in a lemming-like march to the sea are proud of their individualism.

Popular thought appeals to crowds, gatherings and tribes, who use it as a way to guide the herd. It is very evident in protests - sometimes the very people doing the protesting have NO IDEA what they are talking about.

With a flag you can lead people wherever you want.

The nose of a mob is its imagination. By this, at any time, it can be quietly led.

Everything popular is wrong.

There is a noticeable difference from a crowd surging against you and a crowd surging with you.

Such is the nature of crowds: either they are humble and servile or arrogant and dominating. They are incapable of making moderate use of freedom, which is the middle course, or of keeping it.

I think herd mentality is a good thing overall. Because if every sheep had to figure out the velocity of the wolf and their personal risk, that would take forever.

How many fools does it take to make up a public?

It's much better to say, "If the herd is running, I'm running with those guys." And humans have herd mentality.