Le Bon Quotes & Sayings

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

Simon Le Bon spotted me having a problem there, and he went, 'Don't you know who he is?' and that was it, I was in. I thought, 'Bloody hell, it takes Duran Duran to get Johnny Rotten into a building!' I liked him as a bloke, and I like a lot of their songs. I like 'Girls On Film', and I can't pretend otherwise. — John Lydon

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

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

Both my parents are actors, and I saw them struggle with work, waiting for phone calls. — Charlotte Le Bon

There is at Christmas time a great deal of hypocrisy, honourable hypocrisy, hypocrisy undertaken pour le bon motif, c'est entendu, but nevertheless hypocrisy! — Agatha Christie

One of the most constant characteristics of beliefs is their intolerance. The stronger the belief, the greater its intolerance. Men dominated by a certitude cannot tolerate those who do not accept it. — Gustave Le Bon

We were five heterosexual, good-looking men. We competed against each other for the sexiest girls ... I won. — Simon Le Bon

Throw out the rule book. If you like wearing navy and black together, wear it; if you like mixing up gold and silver jewellery, mix it. If you like it, wear it - don't care about what anyone else thinks. — Amber 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

Legislation since this period has followed the course, I pointed out. Rapidly multiplying dictatorial measures have continually tended to restrict individual liberties, and this in two ways. Regulations have been established every year in greater number, imposing a constraint on the citizen in matters in which his acts were formerly completely free, and forcing him to accomplish acts which he was formerly at liberty to accomplish or not to accomplish at will. At the same time heavier and heavier public, and especially local, burdens have still further restricted his liberty by diminishing the portion of his profits he can spend as he chooses, and by augmenting the portion which is taken from him to be spent according to the good pleasure of the public authorities. — Gustave Le Bon

The art of those who govern consists above all in the science of employing words. — Gustave Le Bon

I am actually the most unglamorous person on the planet. I am the most unfinished, unpolished person ever. — Yasmin 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

From the primary school till he leaves the
university a young man does nothing but acquire books by heart without his
judgment or personal initiative being ever called into play. — Gustave 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

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

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

You don't really want to be always thinking about the future, always thinking about where you're heading for. You've got to think about how you're getting there. — Simon Le Bon

Get a really good coat that will last a couple of years and that you can't wait to put on when the weather starts to turn. — Amber Le Bon

My kids love vinyl, I had to teach them how to put the needle on the records. Now they're worried about scratching the records, but it's incredible! — Simon Le Bon

Every Englishman believes that Handel now occupies an important position in heaven. If so, le bon Dieu must feel toward him very much as Louis Treize felt toward Richelieu. — George Bernard Shaw

It worried me when Britney snogged Madonna. It looked a bit fake. It screamed 'We're in this for the money. — Simon Le Bon

Never leave home without a great gloss: Dior Addict Perfecto is one of my faves. — Amber 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

I use Simple face wipes and Nivea face cream. For my body any kind of body butter, the more moisturising the better. — Amber Le Bon

My mum is great for keeping hold of old classics - pieces of clothing that never age and never go out of fashion. She also says, 'Make sure you always smile - it makes everything look better!' — 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

For the rival candidate, an effort must be made to destroy his chance by establishing by dint of affirmation, repetition, and contagion that he is an arrant scoundrel, and that it is a matter of common knowledge that he has been guilty of several crimes. — Gustave Le Bon

This sentiment has very simple characteristics, such as worship of a being supposed superior, fear of the power with which the being is credited, blind submission to its commands, inability to discuss its dogmas, the desire to spread them, and a tendency to consider as enemies all by whom they are not accepted. Whether such a sentiment apply to an invisible God, to a wooden or stone idol, to a hero or to a political conception, provided that it presents the preceding characteristics, its essence always remains religious. — 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

Are the worst enemies of society those who attack it or those who do not even give themselves the trouble of defending it? — 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

The ideas of the past, although half destroyed, being still very powerful, and the ideas which are to replace them being still in process of formation, the modern age represents a period of transition and anarchy. — Gustave Le Bon

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

Crowds are influenced mainly by images produced by the judicious employment of words and formulas — Gustave Le Bon

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

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

I like to make people laugh. That's for sure. And I really like to humiliate myself and go very far in derision and stuff. But no, I like everything. I started a little bit of doing drama, too. I like that, too. I guess I just want to touch everything. — Charlotte Le Bon

You do not comprehend. It is not the victim who concerns me so much. It is the effect on the character of the slayer."
"What about war?"
"In war you do not exercise the right of private judgement. That is what is so dangerous. Once a man is imbued with the idea that he knows who ought to be allowed to live and who ought not - then he is halfway to becoming the most dangerous killer there is - the arrogant killer who kills not for profit - but for an idea. He has usurped the functions of le bon Dieu. — Agatha Christie

You have to live through things. You can't have other people telling you to do that and do this. It's important to live through things. — 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

Trains are relentless things, aren't they, Monsieur Poirot? People are murdered and die, but they go on just the same. I am talking nonsense, but you know what I mean."
"Yes, yes, I know. Life is like a train, Mademoiselle. It goes on. And it is a good thing that that is so."
"Why?"
"Because the train gets to its journey's end at last, and there is a proverb about that in your language, Mademoiselle."
"'Journey's end in lovers meeting.'" Lenox laughed. "That is not going to be true for me."
"Yes
yes, it is true. You are young, younger than you yourself know. Trust the train, Mademoiselle, for it is le bon Dieu who drives it."
The whistle of the engine came again.
"Trust the train, Mademoiselle," murmured Poirot again. "And trust Hercule Poirot. He knows. — Agatha Christie

Your parents are always a big influence on you. They help you make you who you are. The main thing my parents taught me is just to be a nice person - to be generous, kind and happy. I hope it comes off when I work and meet people. — Amber Le Bon

If I'm feeling in a naughty mood, I'll steal some of Mama's Creme De La Mer. If I'm feeling in a very naughty mood, I'll steal some of Daddy's Creme De La Mer. On the whole though, I'm very low maintenance. — Amber Le Bon

You've got to make sure that you make the best of the day that you're in. — Simon 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

There's no question that a vinyl record is a lot nicer than a CD. It's nicer to hold in your hands, you can do more with it. — Simon Le Bon

My style is definitely schizophrenic; it does change from day to day a lot. It depends on my mood: sometimes I'll be going through a girly, childlike stage and wear a pretty lace dress with a bow in my hair. Then sometimes I'll be moody and just wear black. — Amber Le Bon

The greater part of our daily actions are the result of hidden motives which escape our observation. — Gustave Le Bon

That the crowd is always intellectually inferior to the isolated individual, but that, from the point of view of feelings and of the acts these feelings provoke, the crowd may, according to circumstances, he better or worse than the individual. All depends on the nature of the suggestion to which the crowd is exposed. — Gustave Le Bon

Music is not supposed to be nationalist. It is supposed to surpass language barriers. It is about generations communicating with each other. — Simon Le Bon

Science promised us truth, or at least a knowledge of such relations as our intelligence can seize: it never promised us peace or happiness. — 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

We see, then, that the disappearance of the conscious personality, the predominance of the unconscious personality, the turning by means of suggestion and contagion of feelings and ideas in an identical direction, the tendency to immediately transform the suggested ideas into acts; these, we see, are the principal characteristics of the individual forming part of a crowd. He is no longer himself, but has become an automaton who has ceased to be guided by his will. — Gustave 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

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

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 succumbed to hedonism. — Simon Le Bon

The characteristics of the reasoning of crowds are the association of dissimilar things possessing a merely apparent connection between each other, and the immediate generalisation of particular cases. It is arguments of this kind that are always presented to crowds by those who know how to manage them. — Gustave Le Bon

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

The explanation is that their science is only a very attenuated form of our universal ignorance. — Gustave Le Bon

The masses have never thirsted after truth. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim. — 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

Science has promised us truth ... It has never promised us either peace or happiness. — Gustave Le Bon

The CASTE represents the highest degree of organisation of which the crowd is susceptible. — Gustave Le Bon

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

In the case of everything that belongs to the realm of sentiment, religion, politics, morality, the affections, and antipathies, etc. The most eminent men seldom surpass the standard of the most ordinary individuals. — Gustave Le Bon

The images evoked by words being independent of their sense, they vary from age to age and from people to people, the formulas remaining identical. Certain transitory images are attached to certain words: the word is merely as it were the button of an electric bell that calls them up. — Gustave Le Bon

Ambition is a funny thing. You can completely screw yourself with it if you're not careful. — Simon Le Bon

Without consistency and without a future, it has all the transitory characteristics of crowds. Its civilisation is now without stability, and at the mercy of every chance. The populace is sovereign, and the tide of barbarism mounts. The civilisation may still seem brilliant because it possesses an outward front, the work of a long past, but it is in reality an edifice crumbling to ruin, which nothing supports, and destined to fall in at the first storm. To pass in pursuit of an ideal from the barbarous to the civilised state, and then, when this ideal has lost its virtue, to decline and die, such is the cycle of the life of a people. — Gustave Le Bon

Yes, yes, I know. Life is like a train, Mademoiselle. It goes on. And it is a good thing that that is so." "Why?" "Because the train gets to its journey's end at last, and there is a proverb about that in your language, Mademoiselle." " 'Journeys end in lovers meeting.' " Lenox laughed. "That is not going to be true for me." "Yes - yes, it is true. You are young, younger than you yourself know. Trust the train, Mademoiselle, for it is le bon Dieu who drives it. — Agatha Christie

The Italian Renaissance extends beyond food, of course. Just about every major Italian furniture designer now has a shop in Paris, and Le Bon Marche recently opened an outlet for Santa Maria Novella perfumes, elixirs and soaps from Florence on its ground floor. — Elaine Sciolino

Sad news- Prince is gone. Music has lost a great presence. A world less funky. I don't believe in it. — Simon 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

I love Forever 21. A friend of mine introduced it to me when I was in New York. I was borrowing a dress and said, 'Where's that from?' and she said, 'Oh, it's Forever 21,' and I said, 'What, I've never heard of that!' and she said, 'Oh it's this American brand,' and I thought, 'Why doesn't England have that; why doesn't Europe have one?' — Amber Le Bon

Crowds exhibit a docile respect for force, And are but slightly impressed by kindness, Which for them is scarcely other than a form of weakness. Their sympathies have never been bestowed upon easy going masters, but the tyrants who vigorously oppressed them. It is to these latter that they always erect the loftiest statues. It is true that they willingly trample on the despot whom they have stripped of his power, but it is because having lost his power he resumes his place among the feeble who are to be despised because they are not to be feared. The type of hero dear to a crowd will always have the semblance of a Caesar, His insignia attract them, His authority overawes them, and his sword instils them with fear. — Gustave Le Bon

The tyranny exercised unconsciously on men's minds is the only real tyranny, because it cannot be fought against. — Gustave Le Bon

The memory of the dead is indeed a good remorse. (Le souvenir des morts - Est bien un bon remords) — Charles De Leusse

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

What is protecting me is that it is not a finality being an actress. I really think we tend to idealize this job a lot. When you're an actress and you're really famous, it means people believe you are on top of the world - and I think that's not true. — Charlotte Le Bon

The real cause of the great upheavals which precede changes of civilisations, such as the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Arabian Empire, is a profound modification in the ideas of the peoples ... The memorable events of history are the visible effects of the invisible changes of human thought ... The present epoch is one of these critical moments in which the thought of mankind is undergoing a process of transformation. — Gustave Le Bon

In a crowd every sentiment and act is contagious, and contagious to such a degree that an individual readily sacrifices his personal interest to the collective interest. — Gustave Le Bon

You tell your lies and you think nobody knows. But there are two people who know. Yes- two people. One is le bon Dieu - and the other is Hercule Poirot — Agatha Christie

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

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

I think repeating yourself is a sign of old age, telling the same joke again and again. Especially if they're jokes that don't make people laugh. — Simon Le Bon

There are matters in that book, said to be done by the express command of God, that are as shocking to humanity, and to every idea we have of moral justice, as any thing done by Robespierre, by Carrier, by Joseph le Bon, in France, by the English government in the East Indies, or by any other assassin in modern times. When we read in the books ascribed to Moses, Joshua, etc., that they (the Israelites) came by stealth upon whole nations of people, who, as the history itself shews, had given them no offence; that they put all those nations to the sword; that they spared neither age nor infancy; that they utterly destroyed men, women and children; that they left not a soul to breathe; expressions that are repeated over and over again in those books, and that too with exulting ferocity; are we sure these things are facts? are we sure that the Creator of man commissioned those things to be done? Are we sure that the books that tell us so were written by his authority? — Thomas Paine

It turns out that the concept of group madness was the creation of a nineteenth-century French doctor called Gustave Le Bon. His idea was that humans totally lose control of their behaviour in a crowd. Our free will evaporates. A contagious madness takes over, a complete lack of restraint. We can't stop ourselves. — Jon Ronson

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

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

I've got three kids, and those are mouths to feed. — Simon Le Bon

Words whose sense is the most ill-defined are sometimes those that possess the most influence. Such, for example, are the terms democracy, socialism, equality, liberty, &c., whose meaning is so vague that bulky volumes do not suffice to precisely fix it. Yet it is certain that a truly magical power is attached to those short syllables, as if they contained the solution of all problems. — Gustave Le Bon

A crowd is not merely impulsive and mobile. Like a savage, it is not prepared to admit that anything can come between its desire and the realisation of its desire. — Gustave Le Bon

It is terrible at times to think of the power that strong conviction combined with extreme narrowness of mind gives a man possessing prestige. It is none the less necessary that these conditions should be satisfied for a man to ignore obstacles and display strength of will in a high measure. Crowds instinctively recognise in men of energy and conviction the masters they are always in need of. — 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 well acquainted with the psychology of castes, and also with the psychology of other categories of crowds, I do not perceive a single case in which, wrongly accused of a crime, I should not prefer to have to deal with a jury rather than with magistrates. I should have some chance that my innocence would be recognised by the former and not the slightest chance that it would be admitted by the latter. The power of crowds is to be dreaded, but the power of certain castes is to be dreaded yet more. Crowds are open to conviction; castes never are. — Gustave Le Bon