The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: That’s the essence of inhumanity.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
It means nothing to me. I have no opinion about it, and I don’t care.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
Some people confuse acceptance with apathy, but there’s all the difference in the world. Apathy fails to distinguish between what can and what cannot be helped; acceptance makes that distinction. Apathy paralyzes the will-to-action; acceptance frees it by relieving it of impossible burdens.
—Arthur Gordon
God could cause us considerable embarrassment by revealing all the secrets of nature to us: we should not know what to do for sheer apathy and boredom.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Apathy is a sort of living oblivion.
—Horace Greeley (1811–72) American Journalist, Author
America is a hurricane, and the only people who do not hear the sound are those fortunate if incredibly stupid and smug White Protestants who live in the center, in the serene eye of the big wind.
—Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American Novelist Essayist
You see few people here in America who really care very much about living a Christian life in a democratic world.
—Clare Boothe Luce (1903–87) American Playwright, Diplomat, Journalist
Only one enemy is worse than despair: indifference. In every area of human creativity, indifference is the enemy; indifference of evil is worse than evil, because it is also sterile.
—Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) Romanian-American Writer, Professor, Activist
I have a very strong feeling that the opposite of love is not hate—it’s apathy. It’s not giving a damn.
—Leo Buscaglia (1924–98) American Motivational Speaker
A different world cannot be built by indifferent people.
—Peter Marshall
These are days when no one should rely unduly on his “competence.” Strength lies in improvisation. All the decisive blows are struck left-handed.
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) German Literary and Marxist Critic
Scientists announced today that they have discovered a cure for apathy. However, they claim no one has shown the slightest interest in it.
—George Carlin (1937–2008) American Stand-Up Comedian
Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.
—William Feather (1889–1981) American Publisher, Author
Willpower is the key to success. Successful people strive no matter what they feel by applying their will to overcome apathy, doubt or fear.
—Dan Millman (b.1946) American Children’s Books Writer, Sportsperson
Men are accomplices to that which leaves them indifferent.
—George Steiner (1929–2020) American Critic, Scholar
They act as if they supposed that to be very sanguine about the general improvement of mankind is a virtue that relieves them from taking trouble about any improvement in particular.
—John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) British Writer, Journalist, Political Leader, Editor
I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all for fear of being carried off their feet. The prospect really does frighten me that they may finally become so engrossed in a cowardly love of immediate pleasures that their interest in their own future and in that of their descendants may vanish, and that they will prefer tamely to follow the course of their destiny rather than make a sudden energetic effort necessary to set things right.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
Hate is not the opposite of love; apathy is.
—Rollo May (1909–94) American Philosopher
Apathy can only be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first, an ideal which takes the imagination by storm, and second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice.
—Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975) British Historian
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
People have moved beyond apathy, beyond skepticism into deep cynicism.
—Elliot Richardson (1920–99) American Lawyer, Politician
Indifference is an excellent substitute for patience.
—Mason Cooley (1927–2002) American Aphorist
The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.
—Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899–1977) American Educational Philosopher
Wherever the citizen becomes indifferent to his fellows, so will the husband be to his wife, and the father of a family toward the members of his household.
—Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835) German Philosopher, Linguist, Statesman
Wherever there is degeneration and apathy, there also is sexual perversion, cold depravity, miscarriage, premature old age, grumbling youth, there is a decline in the arts, indifference to science, and injustice in all its forms.
—Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) Russian Short-Story Writer
In lazy apathy let stoics boast
Their virtue fix’d: ‘t is fix’d as in a frost;
Contracted all, retiring to the breast;
But strength of mind is exercise, not rest.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less.
—Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) Czech Dramatist, Statesman
I don’t know, I don’t care, and it doesn’t make any difference!
—Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American Novelist, Poet
Lukewarmness I account a sin, as great in love as in religion.
—Abraham Cowley (1618–67) English Poet, Essayist
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