# Quote — Robert A. Heinlein, The Past Through Tomorrow

> Mass psychology is not simply a summation of individual psychologies; that is a prime theorem of social psychodynamics—not just my opinion; no exception has ever been found to this theorem. It is the social mass-action rule, the mob-hysteria law, known and used by military, political, and religious leaders, by advertising men and prophets and propagandists, by rabble rousers and actors and gang leaders, for generations before it was formulated in mathematical symbols. It works.

- Author: [Robert A. Heinlein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein.md)
- Book: [The Past Through Tomorrow](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow.md)
- Page: 535
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein#The_Past_Through_Tomorrow_(1967)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/mass-psychology-is-not

## More from this book

> “Yes, maybe it’s just one colossal big joke with no point to it.” Lazarus stood up and stretched and scratched his ribs. “But I can tell you this, Andy, whatever the answers are, here’s one monkey that’s going to keep on climbing, and looking around him to see what he can see, as long as the tree holds out.”

p. 667 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/yes-maybe-its.md)

> “What course of action do you favor?”
>
> “Me? Why, none. Mary, if there is any one thing I have learned in the past couple of centuries, it’s this: These things pass. Wars and depressions and Prophets and Covenants—they pass. The trick is to stay alive through them.”

p. 539 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/what-course-of-action.md)

> I think perhaps of all the things a police state can do to its citizens, distorting history is possibly the most pernicious.

p. 401 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-past-through-tomorrow/i-think-perhaps.md)