In crowds it is stupidity and not mother wit that is accumulated.

All the civilizations we know have been created and directed by small intellectual aristocracies, never by people in the mass. The power of crowds is only to destroy.

Crowds are somewhat like the sphinx of ancient fable: It is necessary to arrive at a solution of the problems offered by their psychology or to resign ourselves to being devoured by them.

The precise moment at which a great belief is doomed is easily recognisable; it is the moment when its value begins to be called in question.

Science has promised us truth...It has never promised us either peace or happiness.

If atheism spread, it would become a religion as intolerable as the ancient ones.

The masses have never thirsted after truth. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.