There is nothing more foolish, nothing more given to outrage than a useless mob.
Interpretation
A mob can behave irrationally and cause trouble when not guided by purpose.
This quote by Herodotus suggests that when a group of people comes together without a clear purpose or constructive goal, they can become reckless and cause chaos. The 'useless mob' highlights how collective action can lead to foolishness and outrage when there is a lack of direction, illustrating the importance of thoughtful leadership and critical thinking in social movements.
In practice
During a discussion on social behavior, one can quote this to emphasize the risks of mindless group actions.
The Scythians take kannabis seed, creep in under the felts, and throw it on the red-hot stones. It smolders and sends up such billows of steam-smoke that no Greek vapor bath can surpass it. The Scythians howl with joy in these vapor-baths, which serve them instead of bathing, for they never wash their bodies with water.
The man who has planned badly, if fortune is on his side, may have had a stroke of luck; but his plan was a bad one nonetheless.
Men trust their ears less than their eyes.
Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.
The worst pain a man can have is to know much and be impotent to act.
All men's gains are the fruit of venturing.
There is no God any more divine than Yourself.
You are an educated man. You know there are no such things as demons." Bast smiled a terrible smile. "There is only my kind." Bast leaned closer still, Chronicler smelled flowers on his breath. "You are not wise enough to fear me as I should be feared. You do not know the first note of the music that moves me.
Hell is a half-filled auditorium.
Peace will never be entirely secure until men everywhere have learned to conquer poverty without sacrificing liberty or security.
Our life is not given to us like an opera libretto, in which all is written down; but it means going, walking, doing, searching, seeing.... We must enter into the adventure of the quest for meeting God; we must let God search and encounter us.
A means can be justified only by its end. But the end in its turn needs to be justified.
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