Joost A.M. Meerloo Quotes & Sayings

Where thinking is isolated without free exchange with other minds and can no longer expand, delusion may follow. Whenever ideas are compartmentalized, behind and between curtains, the process of continual alert confrontation of facts and reality is hampered. The system freezes, becomes rigid, and dies of delusion. — Joost A.M. Meerloo

radio and television tend to take away active affectionate relationships between men and to destroy the capacity for personal thought, evaluation, and reflection. They catch the mind directly, giving people no time for calm, dialectical conversation with their own minds, with their friends, or with their books. — Joost A.M. Meerloo

If the victim has a chance to investigate and examine the Communist propaganda and accusations, the whole artificial nightmare will fall away. For this reason, the jailers are careful not to dismiss all their converts at once. A few must stay behind as hostages to assure that those who are released will not expose the whole plot and thus endanger their friends in jail. Those who do tell the truth on their return home feel guilty because their revelations may expose the hostages to — Joost A.M. Meerloo

A fantastic thing is happening in our world. Today a man is no longer punished only for the crimes he has in fact committed. Now he may be compelled to confess to crimes that have been conjured up by his judges, who use his confession for political purposes. — Joost A.M. Meerloo

At the moment faith and hope disappear, man breaks down. — Joost A.M. Meerloo

Democracy is nonconformity; it is mutual loyalty, even when we have to attack one another's ideas - ideas, which, because they are always human, are always incomplete. — Joost A.M. Meerloo

Hitler was known among his intimates as the carpet-eater, because he often threw himself on the floor in a kicking and screaming fit like an epileptic rage. — Joost A.M. Meerloo

Free man needs loyalty to the self first of all, and this implies the right to be himself — Joost A.M. Meerloo

Freedom can never be completely safeguarded by rules and laws. It is as much dependent on the courage, integrity, and responsibility of each of us as it is on these qualities in those who govern. Every trait in us and our leaders which points to passive submission to mere power betrays democratic freedom. In our American system of democratic government, three different powerful branches serve to check each other, the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary. Yet when there is no will to prevent encroachment of the power of one by any of the others, this system of checks, too, can degenerate. — Joost A.M. Meerloo

Let us not forget that the best morale booster for ourselves is to help to lift the morale of others. When — Joost A.M. Meerloo

Delusions, carefully implanted, are difficult to correct. — Joost A.M. Meerloo

The modern words "brainwashing," "thought control," and "menticide" serve to provide a clearer conception of the actual methods by which man's integrity can be violated. When a concept is given its right name, it can be more easily recognized - and it is with this recognition that the opportunity for systematic correction begins. — Joost A.M. Meerloo

We live in a world of constant noise which captures our minds even when we are not aware of it — Joost A.M. Meerloo

advertising symbolizes the art of making people dissatisfied with what they have. — Joost A.M. Meerloo

all men are different, and it is the difference between them that creates the greatness, the variety, and the creative inspirations of life, as well as the tensions of social intercourse. — Joost A.M. Meerloo

Stand-by morale, based on fear as in prisons, may disintegrate at the least sign of weakness in leader or guard, or when the individuals have not as yet been sufficiently disciplined. — Joost A.M. Meerloo

What counts in any man is the consistency and integrity of his behavior, and his courage in taking a stand, not his conformity to official dogma. — Joost A.M. Meerloo