No consensus of men can make an error erroneous. We can only find or commit an error, not create it. When we commit an error, we say what was an error already.
Josiah RoyceRead
A crowd, whether it be a dangerous mob, or an amiably joyous gathering at a picnic is not a community. It has a mind, but no institutions, no organizations, no coherent unity, no history, no traditions.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A crowd lacks the unity and structure that defines a true community.
This quote by Josiah Royce highlights the distinction between a mere gathering of people and a genuine community. A crowd may exhibit collective behavior and emotions, but it lacks the deeper connections, historical context, and organized structures that characterize a community, which is built on shared values, traditions, and a sense of belonging.
Themes
CommunityCrowdUnityTraditionOrganization
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about community building at a local event.
More from Josiah Royce
All quotes →That this individual life of all of us is not something limited in its temporal expression to the life that now we experience, follows from the very fact that here nothing final or individual is found expressed.
Josiah RoyceRead
We seek true individuality and the true individuals. But we find them not. For lo, we mortals see what our poor eyes can see; and they, the true individuals, - they belong not to this world of our merely human sense and thought.
Josiah RoyceRead
Thinking is like loving and dying. Each of us must do it for himself.
Josiah RoyceRead
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