# Quotes about propaganda - Quotes: 73 - Authors: 41 - Broader topic: [Quotes about manipulation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/manipulation.md) - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda - JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.json ## Quotes > Portraits of great war leaders or critical battles that looked flattering, well composed, and balanced always felt like propaganda. Tanaka had spent a lot of time in the halls of power. She’d seen many paintings of great men in uniform staring eagle-eyed into the distance where their future glory lay. She’d seen very few paintings of soldiers with only a ragged tent and a dying fire to hold back the cold nights before some stranger tried to bayonet them in the morning. [James S. A. Corey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey.md) · [Leviathan Falls](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/leviathan-falls.md) · p. 384 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/leviathan-falls/portraits-of-great.md) Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > “Propaganda is bad art.” > > “Aren’t you thinking in terms of music, though?” > > “No. In music the problem just doesn’t exist. You don’t even start looking for propaganda in music unless your head’s already addled.” > > “Yes, but in art—well, Daumier, Goya, Hogarth—” > > “They live,” said Sharon, “because they were good artists. If their social ideas had been the kind we don’t happen to like in the twentieth century, their work would last just the same. Cellini was a louse. The piety of Blake and El Greco almost doesn’t exist nowadays. Their work does.” [Edgar Pangborn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn.md) · [A Mirror for Observers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn/a-mirror-for-observers.md) · p. 176 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn/a-mirror-for-observers/propaganda-is-bad.md) Topics: [art](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > It takes civilised people quite a while to appreciate 'the big lie' technique. [John Wyndham](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham.md) · [The Wanderers of Time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/the-wanderers-of-time.md) · p. 87 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/the-wanderers-of-time/it-takes-civilised.md) Topics: [lies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Starvation was the result, rather, of the forcible removal of food from people’s homes; the roadblocks that prevented peasants from seeking work or food; the harsh rules of the blacklists imposed on farms and villages; the restrictions on barter and trade; and the vicious propaganda campaign designed to persuade Ukrainians to watch, unmoved, as their neighbours died of hunger. [Anne Applebaum](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-applebaum.md) · [Red Famine](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-applebaum/red-famine.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-applebaum/red-famine/starvation-was-the.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md), [totalitarianism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/totalitarianism.md), [hunger](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hunger.md) > The mass media serve as a system for communicating messages and symbols to the general populace. It is their function to amuse, entertain, inform, and to inculcate individuals with the values, beliefs, and codes of behavior that will integrate them into the institutional structures of the larger society. In a world of concentrated wealth and major conflicts of class interest, to fulfil this role requires systematic propaganda. [Edward S. Herman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-s-herman.md) · [Manufacturing Consent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-s-herman/manufacturing-consent.md) · p. 1 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-s-herman/manufacturing-consent/the-mass-media.md) Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Fascists rejected reason... denying objective truth in favor of glorious myth articulated by leaders who claimed to give voice to the people. [Timothy Snyder](https://www.leafyquotes.com/timothy-snyder.md) · [On Tyranny](https://www.leafyquotes.com/timothy-snyder/on-tyranny.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/timothy-snyder/on-tyranny/fascists-rejected-reason.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md), [totalitarianism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/totalitarianism.md) > Radio, which formerly had been the main force making for cosmopolitanism, became suddenly in each country the main stimulus to nationalism. Morning, noon and night, every civilized people was assured that enemies, whose flavor was of course subhuman and foul, were plotting its destruction. Armament scares, spy stories, accounts of the barbarous and sadistic behavior of neighboring peoples, created in every country such uncritical suspicion and hate that war became inevitable...All thought of human brotherhood, and even of personal safety, was swept away by a savage blood-lust. [Olaf Stapledon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon.md) · [Star Maker](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker.md) · p. 36 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker/radio-which-formerly.md) Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md), [nationalism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nationalism.md) > The Leadership legends have the air of a myth concocted to justify their place in society. [N. K. Jemisin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin.md) · [The Obelisk Gate](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin/the-obelisk-gate.md) · p. 91 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin/the-obelisk-gate/the-leadership-legends.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > The most favorable moment to seize a man and influence him is when he is alone in the mass. It is at this point that propaganda can be most effective. [Jacques Ellul](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul.md) · [Propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul/propaganda.md) · p. 9 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul/propaganda/the-most-favorable.md) Topics: [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md), [crowd](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/crowd.md) > In the midst of increasing mechanization and technological organization, propaganda is simply the means used to prevent these things from being felt as too oppressive and to persuade man to submit with good grace. When man will be fully adapted to this technological society, when he will end by obeying with enthusiasm, convinced of the excellence of what he is forced to do, the constraint of the organization will no longer be felt by him; the truth is, it will no longer be a constraint, and the police will have nothing to do. The civic and technological good will and the enthusiasm for the right social myths — both created by propaganda — will finally have solved the problem of man. [Jacques Ellul](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul.md) · [Propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul/propaganda.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul/propaganda/in-the-midst.md) Topics: [conformity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Propaganda does not aim to elevate man, but to make him serve. [Jacques Ellul](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul.md) · [Propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul/propaganda.md) · p. 38 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul/propaganda/propaganda-does-not.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Hate, hunger, and pride make better levers of propaganda than do love or impartiality. [Jacques Ellul](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul.md) · [Propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul/propaganda.md) · p. 38 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul/propaganda/hate-hunger-and.md) Topics: [hatred](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hatred.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Having analyzed these traits, we can now advance a definition of propaganda — not an exhaustive definition, unique and exclusive of all others, but at least a partial one: Propaganda is a set of methods employed by an organized group that wants to bring about the active or passive participation in its actions of a mass of individuals, psychologically unified through psychological manipulations and incorporated in an organization. [Jacques Ellul](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul.md) · [Propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul/propaganda.md) · p. 61 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul/propaganda/having-analyzed-these.md) Topics: [manipulation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/manipulation.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > People used to think that learning to read evidenced human progress; they still celebrate the decline of illiteracy as a great victory; they condemn countries with a large proportion of illiterates; they think that reading is a road to freedom. All this is debatable, for the important thing is not to be able to read, but to understand what one reads, to reflect on and judge what one reads. Outside of that, reading has no meaning (and even destroys certain automatic qualities of memory and observation). But to talk about critical faculties and discernment is to talk about something far above primary education and to consider a very small minority. The vast majority of people, perhaps ninety percent, know how to read, but do not exercise their intelligence beyond this. They attribute authority and eminent value to the printed word, or, conversely, reject it altogether. As these people do not possess enough knowledge to reflect and discern, they believe — or disbelieve — in toto what they read. And as such people, moreover, will select the easiest, not the hardest, reading matter, they are precisely on the level at which the printed word can seize and convince them without opposition. They are perfectly adapted to propaganda. [Jacques Ellul](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul.md) · [Propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul/propaganda.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul/propaganda/people-used-to-think.md) Topics: [reading](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > The aim of modern propaganda is no longer to modify ideas, but to provoke action. [Jacques Ellul](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul.md) · [Propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul/propaganda.md) · p. 25 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul/propaganda/the-aim-of-modern.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Propaganda tries to surround man by all possible routes in the realm of feelings as well as ideas, by playing on his will or on his needs, through his conscious and his unconscious, assailing him in both his private and his public life. It furnishes him with a complete system for explaining the world, and provides immediate incentives to action. We are here in the presence of an organized myth that tries to take hold of the entire person. Through the myth it creates, propaganda imposes a complete range of intuitive knowledge, susceptible of only one interpretation, unique and one-sided, and precluding any divergence. This myth becomes so powerful that it invades every arena of consciousness, leaving no faculty or motivation intact. It stimulates in the individual a feeling of exclusiveness, and produces a biased attitude. [Jacques Ellul](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul.md) · [Propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul/propaganda.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul/propaganda/propaganda-tries-to-surround.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > How do you get away with it? Above all, how do you persuade people to risk their lives in order to kill total strangers whom they know almost literally nothing about? Why, the answer’s simple. You lie to them! [John Brunner](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner.md) · [The Stone That Never Came Down](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/the-stone-that-never-came-down.md) · p. 135 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/the-stone-that-never-came-down/how-do-you.md) Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [lies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Propaganda of sufficient age became art. [Gregory Benford](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford.md) · [Beyond Infinity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity.md) · p. 204 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/propaganda-of-sufficient.md) Topics: [art](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Your daddy had to go back to school a little. He had some strange thoughts — and he wanted other grown-ups to believe them. It's not right for others to believe wrong thoughts, is it? [James Clavell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-clavell.md) · [The Children's Story](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-clavell/the-childrens-story.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-clavell/the-childrens-story/your-daddy-had.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md), [totalitarianism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/totalitarianism.md) > I put the candy on the desk. So you know, it doesn't matter who you shut your eyes and pray to — to God, or anyone, even our leader — no one will ever give you anything. Only another human being … only I, or someone like me, can give you things. Praying to God or anyone for something is a waste of time. [James Clavell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-clavell.md) · [The Children's Story](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-clavell/the-childrens-story.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-clavell/the-childrens-story/i-put-the.md) Topics: [manipulation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/manipulation.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Being spoon-fed rosy-hued misinformation by the authorities was no more than people had come to expect—and preemptively discount. They only got suspicious when presented with what looked like the plain unvarnished truth. [Iain M. Banks](https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks.md) · [The Algebraist](https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/the-algebraist.md) · p. 85 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/the-algebraist/being-spoon-fed-rosy-hued.md) Topics: [truth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > The main trouble with avant-garde art and literature, from the point of view of fascists and Stalinists, is not that they are too critical, but that they are too "innocent," that it is too difficult to inject effective propaganda, that kitsch is more pliable to this end. [Clement Greenberg](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clement-greenberg.md) · [Art and Culture](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clement-greenberg/art-and-culture.md) · p. 19 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clement-greenberg/art-and-culture/the-main-trouble.md) Topics: [art](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > All propaganda or popularization involves a putting of the complex into the simple, but such a move is instantly deconstructive. For if the complex can be put into the simple, then it cannot be as complex as it seemed in the first place; and if the simple can be an adequate medium of such complexity, then it cannot after all be as simple as all that. [Terry Eagleton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-eagleton.md) · [Against the Grain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-eagleton/against-the-grain.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-eagleton/against-the-grain/all-propaganda-or-popularization.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > It was surprising and sometimes consternating to find that notwithstanding the opportunities I had to learn the facts and despite one’s inherent distrust of what one learned from Nazi sources, a steady diet over the years of falsifications and distortions made a certain impression on one’s mind and often misled it. No one who has not lived for years in a totalitarian land can possibly conceive how difficult it is to escape the dread consequences of a regime’s calculated and incessant propaganda. Often in a German home or office or sometimes in a casual conversation with a stranger in a restaurant, a beer hall, a café, I would meet with the most outlandish assertions from seemingly educated and intelligent persons. [William L. Shirer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-l-shirer.md) · [Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-l-shirer/rise-and-fall-of-the-third-reich.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-l-shirer/rise-and-fall-of-the-third-reich/it-was-surprising.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md), [totalitarianism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/totalitarianism.md) > I myself was to experience how easily one is taken in by a lying and censored press and radio in a totalitarian state. [William L. Shirer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-l-shirer.md) · [Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-l-shirer/rise-and-fall-of-the-third-reich.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-l-shirer/rise-and-fall-of-the-third-reich/i-myself-was.md) Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md), [totalitarianism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/totalitarianism.md) > Potter knew perfectly well that it was true. He also knew that what was true and what made good propaganda often had not even a nodding acquaintance with each other. [Harry Turtledove](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove.md) · [Settling Accounts: In at the Death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/settling-accounts-in-at-the-death.md) · p. 1 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/settling-accounts-in-at-the-death/potter-knew-perfectly.md) Topics: [truth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > The newspapers extolled every skirmish as one Bonaparte would have admired (clumsy propaganda, in a province that had never reconciled itself to the French revolution), but anyone who believed all the newspapers said deserved nothing better than he got. [Harry Turtledove](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove.md) · [The Great War: Walk in Hell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-walk-in-hell.md) · p. 219 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-walk-in-hell/the-newspapers-extolled.md) Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them. Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question, inaptness to act on any. Frantic violence became the attribute of manliness; cautious plotting, a justifiable means of self-defence. The advocate of extreme measures was always trustworthy; his opponent a man to be suspected. To succeed in a plot was to have a shrewd head, to divine a plot a still shrewder; but to try to provide against having to do either was to break up your party and to be afraid of your adversaries. [Thucydides](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thucydides.md) · [History of the Peloponnesian War](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thucydides/history-of-the-peloponnesian-war.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thucydides/history-of-the-peloponnesian-war/words-had-to-change.md) Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [language](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/language.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > The Regime says a lot of things, nine-tenths of it lies and the other tenth wishful thinking. [Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [The Visitor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-visitor.md) · p. 237 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-visitor/the-regime-says.md) Topics: [lies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > But if Germany, thanks to Hitler and his successors, were to enslave the European nations and destroy most of the treasures of their past, future historians would certainly pronounce that she had civilized Europe. [Simone Weil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-weil.md) · [Simone Weil: An Anthology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-weil/simone-weil-an-anthology.md) · p. 124 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-weil/simone-weil-an-anthology/but-if-germany.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > If you hear nonsense like that often enough for long enough, you begin to believe it. [Octavia E. Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler.md) · [Parable of the Talents](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents.md) · p. 291 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-talents/if-you-hear.md) Topics: [manipulation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/manipulation.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Nobody is more indoctrinated than the indoctrinator. [Dan Brown](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-brown.md) · [The Da Vinci Code](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-brown/the-da-vinci-code.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-brown/the-da-vinci-code/nobody-is-more.md) Topics: [manipulation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/manipulation.md), [fanaticism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fanaticism.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > [H]istory is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books—books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, "What is history, but a fable agreed upon?" By its very nature, history is always a one-sided account. [Dan Brown](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-brown.md) · [The Da Vinci Code](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-brown/the-da-vinci-code.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-brown/the-da-vinci-code/h-istory-is-always.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > My guess is that you would find that the intellectual elite is the most heavily indoctrinated sector. It's their role as a secular priesthood to really believe the nonsense that they put forth. Other people can repeat it, but it's not that crucial that they really believe it. But for the intellectual elite themselves, it's crucial that they believe it because, after all, they are guardians of the faith. Except for a very rare person who's just an outright liar, it's hard to be a convincing exponent of the faith unless you've internalized it and come to believe it. [Noam Chomsky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky.md) · [The Chomsky Reader](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky/the-chomsky-reader.md) · p. 35 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky/the-chomsky-reader/my-guess-is-that.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md), [intellectuals](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/intellectuals.md) > The more intensely the debate rages between hawks and doves, the more firmly and effectively the doctrines of the state religion are established. [Noam Chomsky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky.md) · [The Chomsky Reader](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky/the-chomsky-reader.md) · p. 132 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky/the-chomsky-reader/the-more-intensely.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > The abbot snapped off the set. "Where’s the truth”? he asked quietly. “What’s to be believed? Or does it matter at all? When mass murder’s been answered with mass murder, rape with rape, hate with hate, there’s no longer much meaning in asking whose ax is the bloodier. Evil, on evil, piled on evil. Was there any justification in our ‘police action’ in space? How can we know? Certainly there was no justification for what they did — or was there? We only know what that thing says, and that thing is a captive. The Asian radio has to say what will least displease its government; ours has to say what will least displease our fine patriotic opinionated rabble, which is what, coincidentally, the government wants it to say anyhow, so where’s the difference?" [Walter M. Miller Jr.](https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-m-miller-jr.md) · [A Canticle for Leibowitz](https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-m-miller-jr/a-canticle-for-leibowitz.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-m-miller-jr/a-canticle-for-leibowitz/the-abbot-snapped.md) Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [truth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > A mixture of gullibility and cynicism had been an outstanding characteristic of mob mentality before it became an everyday phenomenon of masses. In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything is possible and that nothing was true. The mixture in itself was remarkable enough, because it spelled the end of the illusion that gullibility was a weakness of unsuspecting primitive souls and cynicism the vice of superior and refined minds. Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness. [Hannah Arendt](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hannah-arendt.md) · [The Origins of Totalitarianism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hannah-arendt/the-origins-of-totalitarianism.md) · p. 382 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hannah-arendt/the-origins-of-totalitarianism/a-mixture-of-gullibility.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md), [cynicism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cynicism.md), [crowd](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/crowd.md) > Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it. [Hannah Arendt](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hannah-arendt.md) · [The Origins of Totalitarianism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hannah-arendt/the-origins-of-totalitarianism.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hannah-arendt/the-origins-of-totalitarianism/before-mass-leaders.md) Topics: [lies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > The Nazis were ‘convinced that evil-doing in our time has a morbid force of attraction,’ Bolshevik assurances inside and outside Russia that they do not recognize ordinary moral standards have become a mainstay of Communist propaganda, and experience has proven time and again that the propaganda value of evil deeds and general contempt for moral standards is independent of mere self-interest, supposedly the most powerful psychological factor in politics. [Hannah Arendt](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hannah-arendt.md) · [The Origins of Totalitarianism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hannah-arendt/the-origins-of-totalitarianism.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hannah-arendt/the-origins-of-totalitarianism/the-nazis-were.md) Topics: [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > [T]here was never an army that did not accuse its enemies of barbarity. [John Buchan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan.md) · [Witch Wood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/witch-wood.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/witch-wood/t-here-was-never.md) Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > “Propaganda,” Trevor said. “Let’s call it psychology. You say a thing so often and so well that after a time everyone believes it. Even, finally, yourself.” [Clifford D. Simak](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak.md) · [Time and Again](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/time-and-again.md) · p. 215 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/time-and-again/propaganda-trevor-said.md) Topics: [lies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > I’m just a propagandist and a propagandist doesn’t have to know what he is talking about, just so he talks about it most convincingly. [Clifford D. Simak](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak.md) · [Time and Again](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/time-and-again.md) · p. 124 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/time-and-again/im-just-a-propagandist.md) Topics: [irony](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > SECRETS ARE LIES > > SHARING IS CARING > > PRIVACY IS THEFT [Dave Eggers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-eggers.md) · [The Circle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-eggers/the-circle.md) · p. 305 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-eggers/the-circle/secrets-are-lies.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md), [privacy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/privacy.md) > That’s the army. But our job was to make the rest of you think it was safe and glorious and good, too. Boys into men? Discipline that isn’t self-discipline doesn’t mean thing to a boy. [Samuel R. Delany](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany.md) · [City of a Thousand Suns](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/city-of-a-thousand-suns.md) · p. 324 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/city-of-a-thousand-suns/thats-the-army.md) Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Dictators during the entire history of this planet have used similar techniques. By not letting the people of their country know what conditions existed outside their boundaries, they could get the people to fight to stay in those conditions. It was the old adage: Convince a slave that he’s free, and he will fight to maintain his slavery. [Samuel R. Delany](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany.md) · [The Jewels Of Aptor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/the-jewels-of-aptor.md) · p. 133 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/the-jewels-of-aptor/dictators-during-the.md) Topics: [slavery](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/slavery.md), [tyranny](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tyranny.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > One could add that the manufactured love for Churchill, and the uses made of him, came to embody the nostalgia for an Empire that was long gone. [Tariq Ali](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tariq-ali.md) · [Winston Churchill: His Times, His Crimes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tariq-ali/winston-churchill-his-times-his-crimes.md) · p. 6 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tariq-ali/winston-churchill-his-times-his-crimes/one-could-add.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md), [nostalgia](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia.md) > The closed language does not demonstrate and explain—it communicates decision, dictum, command. Where it defines, the definition becomes “separation of good from evil;” it establishes unquestionable [Herbert Marcuse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse.md) · [One-Dimensional Man](https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man.md) · p. 101 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man/the-closed-language.md) Topics: [language](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/language.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > This language controls by reducing the linguistic forms and symbols of reflection, abstraction, development, contradiction; by substituting images for concepts. It denies or absorbs the transcendent vocabulary; it does not search for but establishes and imposes truth and falsehood. [Herbert Marcuse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse.md) · [One-Dimensional Man](https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man.md) · p. 103 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man/this-language-controls.md) Topics: [language](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/language.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > As the great words of freedom and fulfillment are pronounced by campaigning leaders and politicians, on the screens and radios and stages, they turn into meaningless sounds which obtain meaning only in the context of propaganda, business, discipline, and relaxation. This assimilation of the ideal with reality testifies to the extent to which the ideal has been surpassed. It is brought down from the sublimated realm of the soul or the spirit or the inner man, and translated into operational terms and problems. Here are the progressive elements of mass culture. The perversion is indicative of the fact that advanced industrial society is confronted with the possibility of a materialization of ideals. The capabilities of this society are progressively reducing the sublimated realm in which the condition of man was represented, idealized, and indicted. Higher culture becomes part of the material culture. In this transformation, it loses the greater part of its truth. [Herbert Marcuse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse.md) · [One-Dimensional Man](https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man.md) · p. 57 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man/as-the-great.md) Topics: [culture](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Our mass media have little difficulty in selling particular interests as those of all sensible men. The political needs of society become individual needs and aspirations, their satisfaction promotes business and the commonweal, and the whole appeals to be the very embodiment of Reason. [Herbert Marcuse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse.md) · [One-Dimensional Man](https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man/our-mass-media.md) Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > We can't even call this a "mainstream" media. It's an extreme media-a media that cheerleads for war. Instead of learning from the media what is actually going on in the world, we get static-a veil of distortion, lies, omissions, and half-truths that obscure reality. As bodies pile up in Iraq and New Orleans, many people are mystified, wondering where it went so wrong. We need a media that creates static of another kind: what the dictionary defines as "criticism, opposition, or unwanted interference." Instead of a media that covers for power, we need a media that covers the movements that create static-and make history. We are not waiting for this alternative media; people are building it right now. Blogs, Indymedia centers, independent filmmakers, and other grassroots media have opened a new way to understand what is happening in the world today. [Amy Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman.md) · [Static](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/static.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/static/we-cant-even.md) Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > The lesson had been learned from Vietnam-a lesson in manipulation. In Iraq, there would be no daily television images of the human toll of war. The government and the media would portray a clean war, a war nearly devoid of victims. [Amy Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman.md) · [The Exception To The Rulers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers/the-lesson-had.md) Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > The Bush team has invoked a basic principle of propaganda: Control the images and you control the people. [Amy Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman.md) · [The Exception To The Rulers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers/the-bush-team.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > This is not a media that is serving a democratic society, where a diversity of views is vital to shaping informed opinions. This is a well-oiled propaganda machine that is repackaging government spin and passing it off as journalism. [Amy Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman.md) · [The Exception To The Rulers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers/this-is-not.md) Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [democracy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Each day a few more lies eat into the seed with which we are born, little institutional lies from the print of newspapers, the shock waves of television, and the sentimental cheats of the movie screen. [Norman Mailer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer.md) · [Advertisements for Myself](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/advertisements-for-myself.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/advertisements-for-myself/each-day-a-few.md) Topics: [lies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Propaganda is not French, it is not civilized to want other people to believe what you believe because the essence of being civilised is to possess yourself as you are, and if you possess yourself as you are you of course cannot possess any one else, it is not your business. [Gertrude Stein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gertrude-stein.md) · [Paris France](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gertrude-stein/paris-france.md) · p. 56 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gertrude-stein/paris-france/propaganda-is-not.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Even the propagandists on the radio find it very difficult to really say let alone believe that the world will be a happy place, of love and peace and plenty, and that the lion will lie down with the lamb and everybody will believe anybody. [Gertrude Stein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gertrude-stein.md) · [Wars I Have Seen](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gertrude-stein/wars-i-have-seen.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gertrude-stein/wars-i-have-seen/even-the-propagandists.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > These pseudo‑events which flood our consciousness must be distinguished from propaganda. The two do have some characteristics in common. But our peculiar problems come from the fact that pseudo‑events are in some respects the op­posite of the propaganda which rules totalitarian countries. Propaganda — as prescribed, say, by Hitler in Mein Kampf — is information intentionally biased. Its effect depends pri­marily on its emotional appeal. While a pseudo‑event is an ambiguous truth, propaganda is an appealing falsehood. Pseudo‑events thrive on our honest desire to be informed, to have “all the facts,” and even to have more facts than there really are. [Daniel J. Boorstin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin.md) · [The Image](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin/the-image.md) · p. 34 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin/the-image/these-pseudo-events-which.md) Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > He could see events being mutated into propaganda before his very eyes, even in the information headquarters of an ostensible democracy. [Christopher Hitchens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens.md) · [And Yet](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/and-yet.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/and-yet/he-could-see.md) Topics: [manipulation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/manipulation.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Ask yourself why totalitarian dictatorships find it necessary to pour money and effort into propaganda for their own helpless, chained, gagged slaves, who have no means of protest or defense. The answer is that even the humblest peasant or the lowest savage would rise in blind rebellion, were he to realize that he is being immolated, not to some incomprehensible noble purpose, but to plain, naked human evil. [Ayn Rand](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand.md) · [The Virtue of Selfishness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-virtue-of-selfishness.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-virtue-of-selfishness/ask-yourself-why.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md), [totalitarianism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/totalitarianism.md) > The effectiveness of political and religious propaganda depends upon the methods employed, not upon the doctrines taught. These doctrines may be true or false, wholesome or pernicious—it makes little or no difference. [Aldous Huxley](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley.md) · [Brave New World Revisited](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world-revisited.md) · p. 63 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world-revisited/the-effectiveness-of-political.md) Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Propaganda in favor of action that is consonant with enlightened self-interest appeals to reason by means of logical arguments based upon the best available evidence fully and honestly set forth. Propaganda in favor of action dictated by the impulses that are below self-interest offers false, garbled or incomplete evidence, avoids logical argument and seeks to influence its victims by the mere repetition of catchwords, by the furious denunciation of foreign or domestic scapegoats, and by cunningly associating the lower passions with the highest ideals, so that atrocities come to be perpetrated in the name of God and the most cynical kind of Realpolitik is treated as a matter of religious principle and patriotic duty. [Aldous Huxley](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley.md) · [Brave New World Revisited](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world-revisited.md) · p. 33 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world-revisited/propaganda-in-favor.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > In regard to propaganda the early advocates of universal literacy and a free press envisaged only two possibilities: the propaganda might be true, or it might be false. They did not foresee what in fact has happened, above all in our Western capitalist democracies—the development of a vast mass communications industry, concerned in the main neither with the true nor the false, but with the unreal, the more or less totally irrelevant. In a word, they failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distraction. [Aldous Huxley](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley.md) · [Brave New World Revisited](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world-revisited.md) · p. 35 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world-revisited/in-regard-to-propaganda.md) Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > One hundred repetitions three nights a week for four years, thought Bernard Marx, who was a specialist on hypnopædia. Sixty-two thousand four hundred repetitions make one truth. Idiots! [Aldous Huxley](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley.md) · [Brave New World](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world/one-hundred-repetitions.md) Topics: [truth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Never has the media been so influential in determining the course of war as during the Al-Aqsa Intifada, which, as far as the Western media are concerned, has essentially become a battle over images and ideas. Israel has already poured hundreds of millions of dollars into what in Hebrew is called hasbara, or information for the outside world (hence, propaganda). This has included an entire range of efforts: lunches and free trips for influential journalists; seminars for Jewish university students who, over a week in a secluded country estate, can be primed to “defend” Israel on the campus; bombarding congressmen and women with invitations and visits; pamphlets and, most important, money for election campaigns; directing (or, as the case requires, harassing) photographers and writers of the current intifada into producing certain images and not others; lecture and concert tours by prominent Israelis; training commentators to make frequent references to the Holocaust and Israel’s predicament today; many advertisements in the newspapers attacking Arabs and praising Israel; and on and on. Because so many powerful people in the media and publishing business are strong supporters of Israel, the task is made vastly easier. [Edward W. Said](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said.md) · [From Oslo to Iraq and the Road Map](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/from-oslo-to-iraq-and-the-road-map.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/from-oslo-to-iraq-and-the-road-map/never-has-the.md) Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > And it taught a lesson: State propaganda, when supported by the educated classes and when no deviation is permitted from it, can have a big effect. It was a lesson learned by Hitler and many others, and it has been pursued to this day. [Noam Chomsky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky.md) · [Media Control](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky/media-control.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky/media-control/and-it-taught.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Let's begin with the first modern (U.S.) government propaganda operation. That was under the Woodrow Wilson Administration. Woodrow Wilson was elected President in 1916 on the platform "Peace Without Victory." That was right in the middle of the World War I. The population was extremely pacifistic and saw no reason to become involved in a European war. The Wilson administration was actually committed to war and had to do something about it. They established a government propaganda commission, called the Creel Commission which succeeded, within six months, in turning a pacifist population into a hysterical, warmongering population which wanted to destroy everything German, tear the Germans limb from limb, go to war and save the world. [Noam Chomsky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky.md) · [Media Control](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky/media-control.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky/media-control/lets-begin-with.md) Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > The progressive intellectuals, people of the John Dewey circle ... took great pride, as you can see from their own writings at the time, in having shown that what they called the "more intelligent members of the community," namely, themselves, were able to drive a reluctant population into a war by terrifying them and eliciting jingoist fanaticism. [Noam Chomsky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky.md) · [Media Control](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky/media-control.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky/media-control/the-progressive-intellectuals.md) Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [fanaticism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fanaticism.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > That was a major achievement, and it led to a further achievement. Right at that time and after the war the same techniques were used to whip up a hysterical Red Scare, as it was called, which succeeded pretty much in destroying unions and eliminating such dangerous problems as freedom of the press and freedom of political thought. There was very strong support from the media, from the business establishment, which in fact organized, pushed much of this work, and it was, in general, a great success. [Noam Chomsky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky.md) · [Media Control](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky/media-control.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky/media-control/that-was-a-major.md) Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > The means that were used were extensive. For example, there was a good deal of fabrication of atrocities by the Huns, Belgian babies with their arms torn off, all sorts of awful things that you still read in history books. Much of it was invented by the British propaganda ministry, whose own commitment at the time, as they put it in their secret deliberations, was "to direct the thought of most of the world." But more crucially they wanted to control the thought of the more intelligent members of the community in the United States, who would then disseminate the propaganda that they were concocting and convert the pacifistic country to wartime hysteria. That worked. It worked very well. [Noam Chomsky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky.md) · [Media Control](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky/media-control.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky/media-control/the-means-that.md) Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > The Cold War ideology and the international communist conspiracy function in an important way as essentially a propaganda device to mobilize support at a particular historical moment for this long-time imperial enterprise. In fact, I believe that this is probably the main function of the Cold War: it serves as a useful device for the managers of American society and their counterparts in the Soviet Union to control their own populations and their own respective imperial systems. [Noam Chomsky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky.md) · [Government in the Future](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky/government-in-the-future.md) · p. 143 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky/government-in-the-future/the-cold-war.md) Topics: [power](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > Already handbills were in circulation; some presenting, in large print, the alternative of justice on the conspirators or ruin to the Republic; others in equally large print urging the observance of the law and the granting of the Appeal. Round these jutting islets of black capitals there were lakes of smaller characters setting forth arguments less necessary to be read: for it was an opinion entertained at that time (in the first flush of triumph at the discovery of printing), that there was no argument more widely convincing than question-begging phrases in large type. [George Eliot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot.md) · [Romola](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/romola.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/romola/already-handbills-were.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md) > DOUBLETHINK means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. The Party intellectual knows in which direction his memories must be altered; he therefore knows that he is playing tricks with reality; but by the exercise of DOUBLETHINK he also satisfies himself that reality is not violated. The process has to be conscious, or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt. [George Orwell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell.md) · [Nineteen Eighty-Four](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four/doublethink-means-the.md) Topics: [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md), [totalitarianism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/totalitarianism.md), [self-deception](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-deception.md)