Propaganda Quotes

• Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.

  Eric Hoffer

  Hype, People, Doe

  Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

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• Propaganda does not aim to elevate man, but to make him serve.

  Jacques Ellul

  Men, Doe, Aim

  "Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes". Book by Jacques Ellul, translated by Konrad Kellen and Jean Lerner,, 1965.

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• By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise.

  Adolf Hitler

  People, Heaven, Historical

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• It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle. They are mere words, and words can be molded until they clothe ideas and disguise.

  Joseph Goebbels

  Circles, Ideas, Squares

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• All propaganda is lies, even when one is telling the truth.

  George Orwell

  Lying, Telling The Truth

  1942 Diary entry,14 Mar.

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• It is very depressing to see that in the 21st century people are still using the same 1950s and '60s style of propaganda.

  Bassem Youssef

  Depressing, People, Style

  "'Egyptian Jon Stewart' Bassem Youssef Will Now Satirize U.S. Democracy". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. February 3, 2016.

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• Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated
  are confident they are acting on their own free will.

  Joseph Goebbels

  Acting, Free Will

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• If writing with a goal - whether it be evangelistic, apologetic, or didactic - implies propaganda, then all recorded history is propaganda. . . a work shouldn't be dismissed simply because of the strong convictions of the writer. Should we discount the facticity or reliability of the accounts of Nazi concentration camp survivors simply because they passionately recount their story?

  Paul Copan

  Strong, Writing, Goal

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• There is no need for propaganda to be rich in intellectual content.

  Joseph Goebbels

  War, Drug, Intellectual

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• Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.

  Unknown

  Truth, War, Lying

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• The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.

  Aldous Huxley

  Thinking, Compassion, Tyrants

  1937 The Olive Tree.

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• The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.

  George Orwell

  Inspirational, Life, People

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• 

  If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.

  Malcolm X

  Hate, Lying, Media

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• History isn't like that. History unravels gently, like an old sweater. It has been patched and darned many times, reknitted to suit different people, shoved in a box under the sink of censorship to be cut up for the dusters of propaganda, yet it always - eventually - manages to spring back into its old familar shape. History has a habit of changing the people who think they are changing it. History always has a few tricks up its frayed sleeve. It's been around a long time.

  Terry Pratchett

  Spring, Cutting, Thinking

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• The frightening aspect is that it's part of a larger effort from the Pentagon to tear down the wall between public affairs and propaganda, and essentially say there is no difference between information operations, public affairs and psychological operations. They have a new name for that too, it's called Information Engagement. What I hope people take away from this is that it's a window into a larger phenomenon. After a decade of Iraq war you have this Pentagon-military apparatus run amok using resources that they shouldn't be to try to manipulate U.S. public opinion.

  Michael Hastings

  Running, Wall, War

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• The best propaganda omits rather than invents

  Mason Cooley

  Political, Language

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• If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.

  Adolf Hitler

  Truth, Lying, Liars

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• When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.

  Thomas Sowell

  Truth, Lying, Helping Others

  Thomas Sowell (2011). “The Thomas Sowell Reader”, p.398, Basic Books

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• Propaganda is the art of persuading others of what you don't believe yourself.

  Decimius Magnus Ausonius

  Art, Lying, Believe

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• Is the president purposefully using propaganda and hyperbole to garner the American public for support?

  Sean Hannity

  Support, President, Hyperbole

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• The truth seems to be that propaganda on its own cannot force its way into unwilling minds; neither can it inculcate something wholly new; nor can it keep people persuaded once they have ceased to believe. It penetrates into minds already open, and rather than instill opinion it articulates and justifies opinions already present in the minds of its recipients.

  Eric Hoffer

  Believe, People, Mind

  "The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements". Book by Eric Hoffer, 1951.

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• This is the secret of propaganda: To totally saturate the person, whom the propaganda wants to lay hold of, with the ideas of the propaganda, without him even noticing that he is being saturated.

  Paul Watzlawick

  Ideas, Secret, Want

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• If we understand the mechanisms and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.

  Edward Bernays

  Thinking, Small Numbers, Knowing

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• A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.

  Saul Bellow

  Inspirational, Freedom, Fear

  Saul Bellow (2016). “To Jerusalem and Back”, p.100, Odyssey Editions

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• Like the effect of advertising upon the customer, the methods of political propaganda tend to increase the feeling of insignificance of the individual voter.

  Erich Fromm

  Tyrants, Political, Feelings

  Erich Fromm (2013). “Escape from Freedom”, p.135, Open Road Media

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