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

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.

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

Relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.

The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority.

Each individual possesses a conscience which to a greater or lesser degree serves to restrain the unimpeded flow of impulses destructive to others. But when he merges his person into an organizational structure, a new creature replaces autonomous man, unhindered by the limitations of individual morality, freed of humane inhibition, mindful only of the sanctions of authority.

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.