It is not so much the kind of person a man is as the kind of situation in which he finds himself that determines how he will act.

I started with the belief that every person who came to the laboratory was free to accept or to reject the dictates of authority. This view sustains a conception of human dignity insofar as it sees in each man a capacity for choosing his own behavior. And as it turned out, many subjects did, indeed, choose to reject the experimenter's commands, providing a powerful affirmation of human ideals.

And perhaps our awareness is the first step to our liberation.

It is not so much the kind of person a man is as the kind of situation in which he finds himself that determines how he will act.

But the culture has failed, almost entirely, in inculcating internal controls on actions that have their origin in authority. For this reason, the latter constitutes a far greater danger to human survival.

It is easy to ignore responsibility when one is only an intermediate link in a chain of action.

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.