Zimbardo Prison Quotes & Sayings

As a result of the prison study, I really became more aware of the central role of power in our lives. I became more aware of the power I have as a teacher. I started consciously doing things to minimize the negative use of power in the classroom. I encouraged students to challenge me. — Philip Zimbardo

Sweet, sweet, sweet, O Pan!
Piercing sweet by the river!
Blinding sweet, O great god Pan!
The sun on the hill forgot to die,
And the lilies reviv'd, and the dragon-fly
Came back to dream on the river. — Browning Elizabeth Barrett

The only faithfulness people have is to emotions they're trying to recapture — Norman Mailer

This is the woman who stopped the Stanford Prison Study. When I said it got out of control, I was the prison superintendent. I didn't know it was out of control. I was totally indifferent. She came down, saw that madhouse and said, "You know what, it's terrible what you're doing to those boys. They're not prisoners, they're not guards, they're boys, and you are responsible." And I ended the study the next day. The good news is I married her the next year. — Philip Zimbardo

The first time I spoke publicly about the Stanford Prison Experiment, Stanley Milgram told me: Your study is going to take all the ethical heat off of my back. People are now going to say yours is the most unethical study ever, and not mine. — Philip Zimbardo

At that moment, the Stanford Prison Experiment was changed into the Stanford Prison, not by any top-down formal declarations by the staff but by this bottom-up declaration from one of the prisoners themselves. — Philip G. Zimbardo

And the pleasures and rewards of the intellect are inseparable from angst, uncertainty, conflict and even despair. — Christopher Hitchens

In one sense, the Stanford prison study is more like a Greek drama than a traditional experiment, in that we have humanity, represented by a bunch of good people, pitted against an evil-producing situation. The question is, does the goodness of the people overwhelm the bad situation, or does the bad situation overwhelm the good people? — Philip Zimbardo

Davis was especially scored for allegedly favoring foreigners and Jews in his administration. — John Jakes

The [Stanford Prison Experiment] was readily approved by the Human Subjects Research committee because it seemed like college kids playing cops and robbers, it was an experiment that anyone could quit at any time and minimal safeguards were in place. You must distinguish hind sight from fore sight, knowing what you know now after the study is quite different from what most people imagined might happen before the study began. — Philip Zimbardo

There is the life of the plankton in almost endless variety; there are the many kinds of fish, both surface and bottom living; there are the hosts of different invertebrate creatures on the sea-floor; and there are those almost grotesque forms of pelagic life in the oceans depths. Then there are the squids and cuttlefish, and the porpoises, dolphins and great whales. — Alister Hardy

The more I try to impress people, the more I separate myself from them. Vulnerability attracts love. — Donald Miller

My older brothers and sisters have kids and families. — Zendaya

Maybe it is not important to go to bed together but get up the following day and make a cup of tea for the other? — Janusz Leon Wisniewski

Jerry-5486: The most apparent thing that I noticed was how most of the people in this study derive their sense of identity and well-being from their immediate surroundings rather than from within themselves, and that's why they broke down - just couldn't stand the pressure - they had nothing within them to hold up against all of this. — Philip G. Zimbardo

There was zero time for reflection. We had to feed the prisoners three meals a day, deal with the prisoner breakdowns, deal with their parents, run a parole board. By the third day I was sleeping in my office. I had become the superintendent of the Stanford county jail. That was who I was: I'm not the researcher at all. Even my posture changes
when I walk through the prison yard, I'm walking with my hands behind my back, which I never in my life do, the way generals walk when they're inspecting troops. — Philip Zimbardo

We all like to think that the line between good and evil is impermeable
that people who do terrible things, such as commit murder, treason, or kidnapping, are on the evil side of this line, and the rest of us could never cross it. But the Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram studies revealed the permeability of that line. Some people are on the good side only because situations have never coerced or seduced them to cross over. — Philip Zimbardo

Kaizen and innovation are the two major strategies people use to create change. Where innovation demands shocking and radical reform, all kaizen asks is that you take small, comfortable steps toward improvement. — Robert D. Maurer

I was born at the age of five. I know this because I don't remember anything else before that. — Michaela McGuire

The man who prays is the one who thinks that god has arranged matters all wrong, but who also thinks that he can instruct god how to put them right. — Christopher Hitchens

Once you start something, finish it. Don't accumulate a backlog of unfinished projects. — Ed Bliss

Whether we consider Nazi Germany or Abu Ghraib prison, there were many people who observed what was happening and said nothing. At Abu Ghraib, one photo shows two soldiers smiling before a pyramid of naked prisoners while a dozen other soldiers stand around watching passively. If you observe such abuses and don't say, "This is wrong! Stop it!" you give tacit approval to continue. You are part of the silent majority that makes evil deeds more acceptable. — Philip Zimbardo

My first movie was 'Diner.' My second movie was 'Tender Mercies.' I did really good work. — Ellen Barkin

I think we ought to all take a step back and remember where we were 24, 48 hours ago, a week ago, two weeks ago - the prospect that was hanging out there that America would not honor its obligations for the first time in its history, and the impact that would have on our economy and the global economy. — Jay Carney

The Stanford prison experiment came out of class exercises in which I encouraged students to understand the dynamics of prison life. — Philip Zimbardo