Famous quotes containing the word masses:
“There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men. When the majority shall at length vote for the abolition of slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to slavery, or because there is but little slavery left to be abolished by their vote. They will then be the only slaves. Only his vote can hasten the abolition of slavery who asserts his own freedom by his vote.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The masses always end up wholeheartedly believing and following those individuals whom they themselves mock, individuals whom they curse and persecute, but individuals who, not fearing their curses or their persecution, continue steadily forward, having fastened a spiritual gaze on the only goal such individuals can see.”
—Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818–1883)
“Leave this hypocritical prating about the masses. Masses are rude, lame, unmade, pernicious in their demands and influence, and need not to be flattered, but to be schooled. I wish not to concede anything to them, but to tame, drill, divide, and break them up, and draw individuals out of them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)