255 Quotes by Jon Ronson

Goebbels thinks that no one since the Frenchman LeBon has understood the mind of the masses as well as he,” wrote Goebbels’s aide Rudolf Semmler in his wartime diary.

But we know that people are complicated and have a mixture of flaws and talents and sins. So why do we pretend that we don’t?

Discover the time of day when you write best, and write then. For me it’s about 7 am to noon. For other people it’s overnight. Try not to do anything other than write between those times.

You combine insecurity and ambition, and you get an inability to say no to things.

We’re creating a culture where people feel constantly surveilled, where people are afraid to be themselves.

For the first hundred years, as far as I could tell, all that happened in America was that various people named Nathaniel had purchased land near rivers.

A crowd is only impressed by excessive sentiments. Exaggerate, affirm, resort to repetition, and never attempt to prove anything by reasoning.

Given all of this, you’d think LeBon’s work might have at some point stopped being influential. But it never did. I suppose one reason for his enduring success is that we tend to love nothing more than to declare other people insane.

We want to see ourselves as curious and open-minded and smart and understanding things in terms of context and nuance, but when someone tries to do that in the midst of a shaming they’re turned on.