Quotessence
Home / Authors / Stanley Milgram
Stanley Milgram

Stanley Milgram Quotes

Psychologist

Filter quotes by topic

AllAuthorityObedience To AuthorityActionMenPersonsPeopleConscienceObedienceBehaviorCommandDestructiveDoeIndividualWishAgentsAwarenessCampsControlled SocietyEthicsFirst Steps

Famous Stanley Milgram Quotes

“I started with the belief that every person who came to the laboratory was free to accept or to reject the dictates of authority. This view sustains a conception of human dignity insofar as it sees in each man a capacity for choosing his own behavior. And as it turned out, many subjects did, indeed, choose to reject the experimenter's commands, providing a powerful affirmation of human ideals.”

MenHumansPersonsBeliefViewsPowerfulAcceptingSubjectsAuthorityBehaviorCapacityIdealsDignityCommandRejectsConceptionProvidingAffirmationLaboratoryHuman Dignity
Author:Stanley Milgram
Create image

“Each individual possesses a conscience which to a greater or lesser degree serves to restrain the unimpeded flow of impulses destructive to others. But when he merges his person into an organizational structure, a new creature replaces autonomous man, unhindered by the limitations of individual morality, freed of humane inhibition, mindful only of the sanctions of authority.”

MenPersonsIndividualGreaterMoralityCreaturesDegreesAuthorityConscienceFlowStructureLimitationImpulseDestructiveHumaneSanctionsSocial PsychologyAutonomousOrganizationalInhibitionsOrganizational StructureObedience To AuthorityIndividual Morality
Author:Stanley Milgram
Create image

“Although a person acting under authority performs actions that seem to violate standards of conscience, it would not be true to say that he loses his moral sense. Instead, it acquires a radically different focus. He does not respond with a moral sentiment to the actions he performs. Rather, his moral concern now shifts to a consideration of how well he is living up to the expectations that the authority has of him.”

WellsPersonsDoeDifferentSeemsActionLosesActingMoralFocusAuthorityStandardsExpectationsConscienceConcernBeing TrueAcquireConsiderationSentiments
Author:Stanley Milgram
Create image

“Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.”

PeopleActionJobsProcessClearEffectsParticularNeededTerribleMoralityAuthorityStandardsOrdinaryResourcesFundamentalsAgentsObedienceDestructiveOrdinary PeopleHostilityObedience To Authority
Author:Stanley Milgram
Create image