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.
Every day, I absorb countless data bits through emails, phone calls, and articles; process the data; and transmit back new bits through more emails, phone calls, and articles. I don't really know where I fit into the great scheme of things and how my bits of data connect with the bits produced by billions of other humans and computers.
Those who dance are considered insane by those who cannot hear the music.
Play is the exultation of the possible.
I do not deny certain kinds of biological differences. But I always ask under what conditions, under what discursive and institutional conditions, do certain biological differences - and they're not necessary ones, given the anomalous state of bodies in the world - become the salient characteristics of sex.
...nothing on earth can stop man from feeling himself born for liberty. Never, whatever may happen, can he accept servitude; for he is a thinking creature.
He had the hypocrisy to represent a mourner: and previous to following with Hareton, he lifted the unfortunate child on to the table and muttered, with peculiar gusto, 'Now, my bonny lad, you are mine! And we'll see if one tree won't grow as crooked as another, with the same wind to twist it!
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.