The human animal cannot be trusted for anything good except en masse. The combined thought and action of the whole people of any race, creed or nationality, will always point in the right direction. – Harry S Truman

The mass never comes up to the standard of its best member, but on the contrary degrades itself to a level with the lowest. – Henry David Thoreau

The only freedom supposed to be left to the masses is that of grazing on the ration of simulacra the system distributes to each individual. – Michel De Certeau

Leave this hypocritical prating about the masses. Masses are rude, lame, unmade, pernicious in their demands and influence, and need not to be flattered, but to be schooled. I wish not to concede anything to them, but to tame, drill, divide, and break them up, and draw individuals out of them. – Ralph Waldo Emerson