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.

Only in action can you fully realize the forces operative in social behavior. That is why I am an experimentalist.

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

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.

Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.

Perhaps the challenge is to invent the political structure that will give conscience a better chance against authority.

When an individual wishes to stand in opposition to authority, he does best to find support for his position from others in his group. The mutual support provided by men for each other is the strongest bulwark we have against the excesses of authority.