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.

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.

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

For a person to feel responsible for his actions, he must sense that the behavior has flowed from the self.

The soldier does not wish to appear a coward, disloyal, or un-American. The situation has been so defined that he can see himself as patriotic, courageous, and manly only through compliance.

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

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