“It is possible to lead astray an entire generation, to blind it, to drive it mad, to direct it toward a false goal. Napoleon proved this.”— Alexander Herzen
“The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one.”— Adolf Hitler
“All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.”— Adolf Hitler
“The only real tragedy in life is the being used by personally minded men for their own ends.”— Ray Stannard Baker
“If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it.”— Edward Bernays
“Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.”— Hermann Göring
“What you need to believe in is what you can see... If you see me as your friend, I'll be your friend. As you see me as your father, I'll be your father.”— Jim Jones
“Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.”— Niccolò Machiavelli
“Nothing convinces persons of a weak understanding so effectually, as what they do not comprehend.”— Cardinal de Retz
“It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.”— J. D. Salinger
“Thought reform is a coordinated program of psychological manipulation, aimed at bringing about a drastic change in an individual's beliefs and behavior.”— Robert Jay Lifton