Gustav Le Bon Quotes

Georges Sorel, to whom fascism is so much indebted, wrote at the beginning of our century that all great movements are compelled by 'myths.' A myth is the strongest belief held by the group, and its adherents feel themselves to be an army of truth fighting an army of evil. Some years earlier, in 1895, the French psychologist Gustav Le Bon had written of the 'conservatism of crowds' which cling tenaciously to traditional ideas. Hitler took the basic nationalism of the German tradition and the longing for stable personal relationships of olden times, and built upon them as the strongest belief of the group. In the diffusion of the 'myth' Hitler fulfilled what Le Bon had forecast: that 'magical powers' were needed to control the crowd. The Fuhrer himself wrote of the 'magic influence' of mass suggestion and the liturgical aspects of his movement, and its success as a mass religion bore out the truth of this view. ~ George L. Mosse

This incessant creation of restrictive laws and regulations,surrounding the pettiest actions of existence with the most complicated formalities, inevitably has for its result the confining within narrower and narrower limits of the sphere in which the citizen may move freely. ~ Gustav Le Bon

An accident which should have caused the death of only five hundred instead of five thousand persons, but on the same day and in public, as the outcome of an accident appealing strongly to the eye, by the fall, for instance, of the Eiffel Tower, would have produced, on the contrary, an immense impression on the imagination of the crowd. ~ Gustave Le Bon

I actually love shopping in vintage shops. What I do with the high street, I buy it, then keep it for a while and then wear it when everyone's not wearing it. So I do that: stock up, then keep it hidden! ~ Amber Le Bon

That was the whole point in forming a band. Girls. Absolutely gorgeous girls. ~ Simon Le Bon

To the Jacobins of this epoch [the French Revolution], as well as to those of our times, this popular entity constitutes a superior personality possessing attributes peculiar to the gods of never having to answer for their actions and never making a mistake. Their wishes must be humbly acceded to. The people may kill, burn, ravage, commit the most frightening cruelties, glorify their hero today and throw him into the gutter tomorrow, it is all the same; the politicians will not cease to vaunt the people's virtues and to bow to their every decision. ~ Gustave Le Bon

In crowds it is stupidity and not mother wit that is accumulated. ~ Gustave Le Bon

All psychologists who have studied the intelligence of women, as well as poets and novelists, recognize today that they represent the most inferior forms of human evolution and that they are closer to children and savages than to an adult, civilized man. They excel in fickleness, inconstancy, absence of thought and logic, and incapacity to reason. ~ Gustave Le Bon

To-day the claims of the masses are becoming more and more sharply defined, and amount to nothing less than a determination to utterly destroy society as it now exists, with a view to making it hark back to that primitive communism which was the normal condition of all human groups before the dawn of civilisation. ~ Gustave Le Bon

I think it's the easiest thing in the world to be friendly and say 'please' and 'thank you.' I try and remember it and use it. ~ Amber Le Bon

I didn't choose Paris. I like to think that the city chose me. ~ Charlotte Le Bon

Crowds always, and individuals as a rule, stand in need of ready-made opinions on all subjects. The popularity of these opinions is independent of the measure of truth or error they contain, and is solely regulated by their prestige. ~ Gustave Le Bon

I love Maje, Rick Owens, Helmut Lang, Christopher Kane, Felder + Felder, and Sam Edelman shoes. ~ Amber Le Bon

When Steven Spielberg thinks you're the one, then I'll do anything. If you want me to put a dead horse on my head, I'll do it. ~ Charlotte Le Bon

I think it's important when you make a record that you know you're working with the people who are going to get the best out of you. ~ Simon Le Bon

A person is not religious solely when he worships a divinity, but when he puts all the resources of his mind, the complete submission of his will, and the whole-souled ardour of fanaticism at the service of a cause or an individual who becomes the goal and guide of his thoughts and actions. ~ Gustave Le Bon

I always accessorize with jewelry. I am a bit of a magpie; I love sparkles, and so wearing jewelry makes me feel more exciting and confident, too! ~ Amber Le Bon

Two fundamental factors are at the base of this transformation. The first is the destruction of those religious, political, and social beliefs in which all the elements of our civilisation are rooted. The second is the creation of entirely new conditions of existence and thought as the result of modern scientific and industrial discoveries. ~ Gustave Le Bon

Ideas being only accessible to crowds after having assumed a very simple shape must often undergo the most thoroughgoing transformations to become popular. It is especially when we are dealing with somewhat lofty philosophical or scientific ideas that we see how far-reaching are the modifications they require in order to lower them to the level of the intelligence of crowds. [ ... .] However great or true an idea may have been to begin with, it is deprived of almost all that which constituted its elevation and its greatness. ~ Gustave Le Bon

I'm very low maintenance. I use Simple wipes to take off my makeup, wash my hair with whatever's in the shower. ~ Amber Le Bon

That's my one rule: always take off my makeup; no matter how tired I am before going to bed, it comes off! ~ Amber Le Bon

The devil is in the detail" is an idiom that refers to a catch or mysterious element hidden in the details. It derives from "God is in the detail" attributed to German-born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969). Earlier on Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) said "Le bon Dieu est dans le detail." Meaning that things seem simple at first but are more complex or require more time and effort than expected. The earlier idea is that details are important; whatever one does should be done thoroughly. ~ Gustave Flaubert

Crowds are somewhat like the sphinx of ancient fable: It is necessary to arrive at a solution of the problems offered by their psychology or to resign ourselves to being devoured by them. ~ Gustave Le Bon

God created the world and then created the devil, to blame for his mistakes. ~ Simon Le Bon

A civilization, when the moment has come for crowds to acquire a high hand over it, is at the mercy of too many chances to endure for long. Could anything postpone for a while the hour of its ruin, it would be precisely the extreme instability of the opinions of crowds and their growing indifference and lack of respect for all general beliefs. ~ Gustave Le Bon

Were it possible to induce the masses to adopt atheism, this belief would exhibit all the intolerant ardor of a religious sentiment, and in its exterior forms would soon become a cult. ~ Gustave Le Bon

The life of a model is so varied that I never know what will be happening from one week to the next. ~ Amber Le Bon

I am actually the most unglamorous person on the planet. I am the most unfinished, unpolished person ever. ~ Yasmin Le Bon

You can set unachievable goals, and you can end up missing out on your life because, in some ways, ambition is kind of living in the future. ~ Simon Le Bon

I don't know where I see myself next month let alone five years. My whole life is last minute. I enjoy the spontaneity of it; I like not knowing what I will do next or whether I will be in the country next week. I just enjoy being around a creative environment. ~ Amber Le Bon

The beginning of a revolution is in reality the end of a belief. ~ Gustave Le Bon

A crowd thinks in images, and the image itself calls up a series of other images, having no logical connection with the first ... A crowd scarcely distinguishes between the subjective and the objective. It accepts as real the images invoked in its mind, though they most often have only a very distant relation with the observed facts ... Crowds being only capable of thinking in images are only to be impressed by images. ~ Gustave Le Bon

Sentiment has never been vanquished in its eternal conflict with reason ~ Gustave Le Bon

At the bidding of a Peter the Hermit millions of men hurled themselves against the East; the words of an hallucinated enthusiast such as Mahomet created a force capable of triumphing over the Graeco-Roman world; an obscure monk like Luther bathed Europe in blood. The voice of a Galileo or a Newton will never have the least echo among the masses. The inventors of genius hasten the march of civilization. The fanatics and the hallucinated create history. ~ Gustave Le Bon

People wonder why I go out with models with nothing between their heads ~ Simon Le Bon

Isolated, he may be a cultivated individual; in a crowd, he is a barbarian - that is, a creature acting by instinct. ~ Gustave Le Bon

It is time in particular that prepares the opinions and beliefs of crowds, or at least the soil on which they will germinate. ~ Gustave Le Bon

The influence of the leaders is due in very small measure to the arguments they employ, but in a large degree to their prestige. The best proof of this is that, should they by any circumstance lose their prestige, their influence disappears. ~ Gustave Le Bon

Being put in a group, I hate that. I don't think anyone likes it. Everyone just wants to be their own person. ~ Amber Le Bon

It's pathetic to have regrets about fashion. Things to do with my life, yes, I have regrets there. ~ Simon Le Bon

If atheism spread, it would become a religion as intolerable as the ancient ones. ~ Gustave Le Bon

Digital music boils down the actual musical experience. ~ Simon Le Bon

To lose time in the manufacture of cut-and-dried constitutions is, in consequence, a puerile task, the useless labour of an ignorant rhetorician. Necessity and time undertake the charge of elaborating constitutions when we are wise enough to allow these two factors to act ~ Gustave Le Bon

The only real tyrants that humanity has known have always been the memories of its dead or the illusions it has forged itself. ~ Gustave Le Bon

If I'm not feeling super confident about an outfit or a little insecure - I'll probably accessorize my outfit with some jewelry. ~ Amber Le Bon

The memorable events of history are the visible effects of the invisible changes of human thought. ~ Gustave Le Bon

I'm vegetarian, so it's difficult for me to eat Tourtiere. ~ Charlotte Le Bon

These days I think people give up too easily. Everyone says it's about compromise, which it is. Love, compromise, promises, presents help. But ultimately it's about not giving up. People are led to believe that if it's not perfect then just ditch it and change it, these days. That's a mistake. ~ Simon Le Bon

Many people make their own God; and he is much what the French may mean when they talk of le bon Dieu,
very indulgent, rather weak, near at hand when we want anything, but far away out of sight when we have a mind to do wrong. Such a God is as much an idol as if he were an image of stone. ~ Julius Charles Hare

After a foreign invasion, there has to be a sort of feeling of musical inadequacy in the country. ~ Simon Le Bon

From the intellectual point of view an abyss may exist between a great mathematician and his boot maker, but from the point of view of character the difference is most often slight or non-existent ~ Gustave Le Bon