36 Quotes by Stanley Milgram

I would say, on the basis of having observe a thousand people in the experiment and having my own intuition shaped and informed by these experiments, that if a system of death camps were set up in the United States of the sort we had seen in Nazi Germany, one would find sufficient personnel for those camps in any medium-sized American town.

Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process.

A substantial proportion of people do what they are told to do, irrespective of the content of the act, and without pangs of conscience, so long as they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority.

It may be that we are puppets-puppets controlled by the strings of society. But at least we are puppets with perception, with awareness. And perhaps our awareness is the first step to our liberation. (1974)

The essence in obedience consists in the fact that a person comes to view himself as an instrument for carrying out another person’s wishes and he therefore no longer regards himself as responsible for his actions.

Control the manner in which a man interprets his world, and you have gone a long way toward controlling his behavior.

There is a propensity for people to accept definitions of action provided by legitimate authority.

There is a certain discomfort in not knowing who the boss is, and subjects sometimes frantically sought to determine this.

It is clear that the disagreement between the authorities completely paralyzed action. Not.