We want to believe in the essential, unchanging goodness of people, in their power to resist external pressures, in their rational appraisal and then rejection of situational temptations. We invest human nature with God-like qualities, with moral and rational faculties that make us both just and wise. We simplify the complexity of human experience by erecting a seemingly impermeable boundary between Good and Evil. Philip G. Zimbardo
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  1. One of the basic Sufi needs is to enable people to see themselves as they really are. - Idries Shah

  2. The Sufis regard systems which treat everyone alike as mechanical and degenerate. - Idries Shah

  3. All literature, or most literature, is about sex." (A. Burgess) - Blanche Bachelar

  4. Religious man was born to be saved, psychological man is born to be pleased. - Philip Rieff

  5. No matter what I said they insisted on thinking of God as something outside themselves. Something that yearns to take every indolent moron to His breast and comfort him. The notion that the effort has to be their own .. . and that the trouble... - Robert A. Heinlein

More Quotes By Philip G. Zimbardo
  1. Fear is the State's psychological weapon of choice to frighten citizens into sacrificing their basic freedoms and rule-of-law protections in exchange for the security promised by their all-powerful government.

  2. Western societies want men to be upstanding, proactive citizens who take responsibility for themselves, who work with others to improve their communities and nation as a whole. The irony is that society is not giving the support, guidance, means, or places for these young men...

  3. Every evil starts with 15 volts.

  4. Majority decisions tend to be made without engaging the systematic thought and critical thinking skills of the individuals in the group. Given the force of the group's normative power to shape the opinions of the followers who conform without thinking things through, they are often...

  5. Sticks and stones can break your bones, but names can kill you.

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