The role of the scholar is to destroy chimeras, that of the statesman is to make use of them.

One of the most constant characteristics of beliefs is their intolerance. The stronger the belief, the greater its intolerance. Men dominated by a certitude cannot tolerate those who do not accept it.

Crowds are influenced mainly by images produced by the judicious employment of words and formulas

The role of the scholar is to destroy chimeras, that of the statesman is to make use of 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.

A crowd is not merely impulsive and mobile. Like a savage, it is not prepared to admit that anything can come between its desire and the realisation of its desire.

The images evoked by words being independent of their sense, they vary from age to age and from people to people, the formulas remaining identical. Certain transitory images are attached to certain words: the word is merely as it were the button of an electric bell that calls them up.