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Mass Quotes

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Mass Quotes

“A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrine and promises but by the refuge it offers from the anxieties, barrenness and meaningless of an individual existence. It cures the poignantly frustrated not by conferring upon them an absolute truth or by remedying the difficulties and abuses which made their lives miserable, but by freeing them from their ineffectual selves and it does this by enfolding and absorbing them into a closely knit and exultant corporate whole.”

DoeMadeSelfWholeIndividualExistenceSocietyMovementPromiseOffersAnxietyMassAbuseDifficultyAbsolutesFollowingDoctrineCuresMiserableCorporateRisingMeaninglessFrustratedRefugeAbsorbingAbsolute TruthTrue Believer
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
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“The vigor of a mass movement stems from the propensity of its followers for united action and self-sacrifice. When we ascribe the success of a movement to its faith, doctrine, propaganda, leadership, ruthlessness and so on, we are but referring to instruments of unification and to means used to inculcate a readiness for self-sacrifice. It is perhaps impossible to understand the nature of a mass movement unless it is recognized that their chief preoccupation is to foster, perfect and perpetuate a facility for united action and self-sacrifice.”

MeanSelfActionUsedPerfectUnitedImpossibleSacrificeSocietyMovementMassInstrumentsDoctrineChiefsPropagandaFollowersStemFacilityReadinessSelf SacrificeVigorReferringPreoccupationPropensityUnificationRuthlessness
Book:THE TRUE BELIEVER
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“For the whole consequence of evolution from blind impulse through conscious will to self conscious knowledge, seems still somehow to correspond to a continued result of births, rebirths and new births, which reach from the birth of the child from the mother, beyond the birth of the individual from the mass, to the birth of the creative work from the individual and finally to the birth of knowledge from the work.”

ChildrenStillsSelfWholeSeemsMotherIndividualResultsCreativeEvolutionBirthMassConsciousConsequenceBlindImpulseRebirthSelf ConsciousCreative Work
Book:journal
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“Poverty when coupled with creativeness is usually free of frustration. This is true of the poor artisan skilled in his trade and of the poor writer, artist, and scientist in the full possession of creative powers. Nothing so bolsters our self-confidence and reconciles us with ourselves as the continuous ability to create; to see things grow and develop under our hand, day in, day out. The decline of handicrafts in modern times is perhaps one of the causes for the rise of frustration and the increased susceptibility of the individual to mass movements.”

SelfHandsArtistIndividualGrowsCausesAbilityPoorPovertyCreativeModernMovementMassScientistTradePossessionSelf ConfidenceFrustrationDeclineReconcileModern TimesCreative PowerCreativenessArtisansSusceptibilityHandicrafts
Book:THE TRUE BELIEVER
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“The self-esteem of western women is founded on physical being (body mass index, youth, beauty). This creates a tricky emphasis on image, but the internalized locus of self-worth saves lives. Western men are very different. In externalizing the source of their self-esteem, they surrender all emotional independence. (Conquest requires two parties, after all.) A man cannot feel like a man without a partner, corporation, team. Manhood is a game played on the terrain of opposites. It thus follows that male sense of self disintegrates when the Other is absent.”

MenFeelsTwoDifferentSelfBodyGamesPartyTeamSelf EsteemYouthEmotionalSourceMassOppositesIndependenceWesternMalesPartnersSurrenderSelf WorthEsteemCorporationsManhoodEmphasisConquestAbsentTrickySense Of SelfTerrainSave A Life
Book:The Eclipse: A Memoir of Suicide
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“In 1978 I decided not to work with Man Ray as an act of self-discipline. I didn't want to rely on him. Man Ray hated not working, though. He would come into my studio, see me drawing or working on photographs, and just slump down at my feet with a big sigh. Fortunately for both of us the year ended. Polaroid had invented a new camera, the twenty-by-twenty-four, and I was invited to Cambridge, Mass., to experiment with it. Naturally, I took Man Ray and we were working again.”

MenWantYearsSelfBigsFourFeetDisciplineMassDecidedTwentiesCamerasPhotographStudiosDrawingExperimentsHatedRelyRaysSelf DisciplineSighInvitedCambridgeSlumpsPolaroids
Author:William Wegman
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“The 'coming of the Self' is immanent; and the process of collective 'individuation' is living itself out in human history. One way or another, the world is going to be made a single whole entity. But it will be unified either in mutual mass destruction or by means of mutual human consciousness. If a sufficient number of individuals can have the experience of the coming of the Self as an individual, inner experience, we may just possibly be spared the worst features of its external manifestation.”

IfsWorldWayHumansMayMeanMadeSelfWholeIndividualProcessNumbersConsciousnessWorstMassDestructionIndependenceOne WayFeaturesManifestationSufficientCollectivesMutualEntityHuman HistoryMass DestructionUnifiedHuman ConsciousnessIndividuation
Author:Edward F Edinger
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“Mass democracy, mass morality and the mass media thrive independently of the individual, who joins them only at the cost of at least a partial perversion of his instincts and insights. He pays for his social ease with what used to be called his soul - his discriminations, his uniqueness, his psychic energy, his self.”

SoulSelfUsedIndividualEnergySocialPayDemocracyMediaMoralityCostMassInstinctInsightDiscriminationUsed To BeEaseThriveUniquenessPsychicsPerversionMass Media
Book:The Savage God: A Study of Suicide
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“The very secret of life for mewas to maintain in the midst of rushing events an inner tranquility. I had picked a life that dealt with excitement, tragedy, mass calamities, human triumphs and suffering. To throw my whole self into recording and attempting to understand these things, I needed an inner serenity as a kind of balance.”

HumansKindSelfWholeSufferingSecretEventsNeededBalanceMassTragedyTriumphExcitementMidstSerenityTranquilityAttemptingCalamityRushingSecret Life
Author:Margaret Bourke-White
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“Most people are shaped to the form of their culture because of the enormous malleability of their original endowment. They are plastic to the moulding force of the society into which they are born. It does not matter whether, with the Northwest Coast, it requires delusions of self-reference, or with our own civilization the amassing of possessions. In any case the great mass of individuals take quite readily the form that is presented to them.”

PeopleDoeSelfMatterFormCultureIndividualForceBornCasesSocietyCivilizationMassOriginalsPossessionEnormousDelusionPlasticCoastEndowment
Book:PATTERNS OF CULTURE
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“It is a characteristic of any decaying civilization that the great masses of the people are unconscious of the tragedy. Humanity in a crisis is generally insensitive to the gravity of the times in which it lives. Men do not want to believe their own times are wicked, partly because it involves too much self-accusation and principally because they have no standards outside of themselves by which to measure their times.”

PeopleMenWantBelieveSelfHumanityToo MuchCivilizationMassStandardsTragedyCrisisCharacteristicsUnconsciousWickedGravityAccusationInsensitive
Author:Fulton J. Sheen
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“Each man's private conscience ought to be a nice little self-registering thermometer: he ought to carry his moral code incorruptibly and explicitly within himself, and not care what the world thinks. The mass of human beings, however, are not made that way; and many people have been saved from crime or sin by the simple dislike of doing things they would not like to confess.”

PeopleThinkingMenWorldWayHumansLittlesHas BeensMadeSelfCareHuman BeingsSinSimpleMoralNiceCrimeOughtMoralityMassConscienceSavedCodeDislikeMoral CodeThermometers
Book:Modes and Morals
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“But the problems of perpetuating a hierarchical society go deeper than this. There are only four ways in which a ruling group can fall from power. Either it is conquered from without, or it governs so inefficiently that the masses are stirred to revolt, or it allows a strong and discontented Middle group to come into being, or it loses its own self-confidence and willingness to govern.”

WaySelfProblemPoliticalFallPoliticsStrongLosesFourGroupsMiddleMassDeeperSelf ConfidenceWillingnessRulingRevoltNineteenPerpetuatingIgnorance In 1984
Book:The Complete Novels of George Orwell: Animal Farm, Burmese Days, A Clergyman's Daughter, Coming Up for Air, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Nineteen Eighty-Four
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“For men tied fast to the absolute, bled of their differences, drained of their dreams by authoritarian leeches until nothing but pulp is left, become a massive, sick Thing whose sheer weight is used ruthlessly by ambitious men. Here is the real enemy of the people: our own selves dehumanized into the masses. And where is the David who can slay this giant?”

PeopleMenRealSelfDreamUsedLeftDifferencesEnemyMassSickWeightAbsolutesGiantsMassiveAmbitiousTiedSheerDrainedPulpLeechesAmbitious Man
Author:Lillian Smith
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“In a nuclear age, and in an age of serious environmental degradation, apocalyptic belief creates a serious second order danger. The precarious logic of self-interest that saw us through the Cold War would collapse if the leaders of one nuclear state came to welcome, or ceased to fear mass death.”

IfsWarSelfStatesAgeOrderBeliefInterestLeaderSawsDangerSeriousColdMassLogicEnvironmentalNuclearWelcomeCollapseCold WarSelf InterestDegradationApocalypticPrecariousEnvironmental Degradation
Author:Ian Mcewan
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“Vidal gives the impression of believing that the entire heterosexual edifice - registry offices, 'Romeo and Juliet,' the disposable diaper - is just a sorry story of self-hypnosis and mass hysteria: a hoax, a racket, or sheer propaganda.”

GivingBelieveSelfStoriesOfficeMassSorryImpressionPropagandaSheerHysteriaJulietDiapersRacketDisposableEdificeHypnosisHoaxesMass Hysteria
Book:The War Against Cliche: Essays and Reviews 1971-2000
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“Very few men can be genuinely happy in a life involving continual self-assertion against the skepticism of the mass of mankind, unless they can shut themselves up in a coterie and forget the cold outer world. The man of science has no need of a coterie, since he is thought well of by everybody except his colleagues. The artist, on the contrary, is in the painful situation of having to choose between being despised and being despicable.”

MenWorldNeedsWellsSelfArtistForgetSituationMankindHe ManColdMassPainfulContrarySkepticismColleaguesAssertionInvolvingDespisedDespicableOuter WorldsPainful Situations
Book:The Conquest of Happiness
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“When I was young, my mother [folk singer Kate McGarrigle] brought home this recording of Verdi's Requiem and we listened to it from top to bottom. By the end of it, I was a completely different person. It was literally a requiem mass for my former self. I was about 12 or 13. The Requiem just totally hooked into what I was going through emotionally - discovering my sexuality right at the time when AIDS was devastating my community and dealing with intense parental situations.”

PersonsDifferentEndsSelfHomeYoungMotherCommunitySituationMassBottomFolksSexualityAidsSingersIntenseFormerDiscoveringKateHookedParentalRequiemVerdi
Author:Rufus Wainwright
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“The easiest way to separate yourself from the unformed blobby mass of "aspiring" writers is to a) actually write and b) actually finish. That's how easy it is to clamber up the ladder to the second echelon. Write. And finish what you write. That's how you break away from the pack and leave the rest of the sickly herd for the hungry wolves of shame and self-doubt. And for all I know, actual wolves.”

KnowsWayWritingSelfEasyBreakDoubtMassShameHungryPacksLaddersHerdsSelf-doubtAspiring Writers
Author:Chuck Wendig
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“You find this watered-down enlightenment sold in mass quantity at yoga studios, high-priced shamanism retreats, DJ-fueled Ecstatic Dance parties, ayahuasca ceremonies, and self-empowerment seminars. There's a hope for a quick fix - if only we have the money and right drugs for it.”

IfsSelfPartyDrugMassEnlightenmentYogaEmpowermentStudiosQuantityRetreatCeremonySelf EmpowermentEcstaticDjsShamanismSeminarsAyahuascaQuick FixesDance Party
Author:Alexander Weinstein
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“For an Apple is in it self a little Universe; the Seed, hotter than the other parts thereof, is its Sun, which diffuses about it self that natural Heat which preserves its Globe: And in the Onion, the Germ is the little Sun of that little World, which vivifies and nourishes the vegetative Salt of that little mass.”

WorldLittlesSelfUniverseNaturalSunMassSeedsPreservesHeatApplesSaltGlobesGermsOnionsHotter
Book:A Voyage to the Moon: Souls Needed for You
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“The amazing thing is that chaotic systems don't always stay chaotic," Ben said, leaning on the gate. "Sometimes they spontaneously reorganize themselves into an orderly structure." "They suddenly become less chaotic?" I said, wishing that would happen at HiTek. "No, that's the thing. They become more and more chaotic until they reach some sort of chaotic critical mass. When that happens, they spontaneously reorganize themselves at a higher equilibrium level. It's called self-organized criticality.”

SaidSelfSometimesHappensWishLevelsHigherMassStructureChaosCriticalOrganizedGatesChaoticAmazing ThingsEquilibriumOrderlyCritical MassChaos Theory
Book:Futures Imperfect
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“What, unless biological science is a mass of errors, is the cause of human intelligence and vigour? Hardship and freedom: conditions under which the active, strong, and subtle survive and the weaker go to the wall; conditions that put a premium upon the loyal alliance of capable men, upon self-restraint, patience, and decision. And the institution of the family, and the emotions that arise therein, the fierce jealousy, the tenderness for offspring, parental self-devotion, all found their justification and support in the imminent dangers of the young.”

MenHumansSelfYoungFoundStrongCausesDecisionEmotionSupportConditionsDangerWallMassCapableInstitutionsErrorsActiveAriseDevotionSubtleHardshipLoyalFierceTendernessJustificationRestraintAlliancesOffspringParentalPremiumHuman IntelligenceSelf RestraintBiological Science
Author:H. G. Wells
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“He loved possessions, not masses of them, but a select few that he did not part with.They gave a man self-respect. Not ostentation but quality, and the love that cherished the quality. Possessions reminded him that he existed, and made him enjoy his existence. It was as simple as that. And wasn' t that worth something? He existed.”

PeopleIfsMenWorldMadeSelfCertainEnjoySimpleExistenceQualitySecurityMassPossessionSelf RespectSelectOstentation
Author:Patricia Highsmith
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“We are all susceptible to the pull of viral ideas. Like mass hysteria. Or a tune that gets into your head that you keep humming all day until you spread it to someone else. Jokes. Urban legends. Crackpot religions. Marxism. No matter how smart we get, there is always this deep irrational part that makes us potential hosts for self-replicating information.”

IdeasSelfMatterInformationMassSmartJokesSpreadTunesLegendsHostIrrationalUrbanMarxismHysteriaSusceptibleHummingViralCrackpotsUrban LegendsMass Hysteria
Author:Neal Stephenson
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“We cannot hope, then, in this generation, or for several generations, that the mass of the whites can be brought to assume that close sympathetic and self-sacrificing leadership of the blacks which their present situation so eloquently demands. Such leadership, such social teaching and example, must come from the blacks themselves.”

SelfSocialSituationGenerationsSacrificeTeachingExampleDemandMassAssumingPatriotismSympatheticThis GenerationPresent Situation
Book:The Souls of Black Folk: The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois
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“Until relatively recently, mass political movements were still about basic rights of food, shelter, education and self sufficiency. The reasons fewer people vote these days, or turn up for political meetings, is that for the vast majority of us those rights have been fulfilled. These days it's in the adverts for mobile phones or foreign holidays where phrases like "Join the Revolution!" and "Cry Freedom!" are bandied about for a generation which knows nothing of their provenance. Just as now we have luxury illnesses to replace real ones, so now we have luxury politics.”

PeopleKnowsHas BeensStillsRealSelfReasonPoliticalTurnsPoliticsRightsGenerationsCryMovementRevolutionPoliticianMassVoteMajorityMeetingsPhonesIllnessLuxuryThese DaysPhrasesHolidayFewerShelterFulfilledMobileSelf SufficiencySufficiencyMobile PhonesReal OnesAdvertsPolitical MovementsBasic Rights
Author:John Diamond
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“The black masses want not to be shrunk from as though they are plague-ridden. They want not to be walled up in slums, in the ghettos, like animals. They want to live in an open, free society where they can walk with their heads up, like men, and women! Few white people realize that many black people today dislike and avoid spending more time than they must about white people. This 'integration' image, as it is popularly interpreted, has millions of vain, self-exalted white people convinced that black people want to sleep in bed with them - and that's a lie!”

PeopleMenWantSelfTodayLyingBlackRealizingSleepWhiteWalksAnimalMillionsBedMassMen And WomenSpendingConvincedVainMore TimeBlack PeopleDislikeIntegrationPlagueGhettoExaltedFree SocietySlumsHeads UpWant To Sleep
Author:Malcolm X
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