If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
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
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
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
Apathy is a sort of living oblivion.
—Horace Greeley (1811–72) American Journalist, Author
Lukewarmness I account a sin, as great in love as in religion.
—Abraham Cowley (1618–67) English Poet, Essayist
It means nothing to me. I have no opinion about it, and I don’t care.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
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
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
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
In communications, familiarity breeds apathy.
—William Bernbach (1911–82) American Advertising Executive
The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
Men are accomplices to that which leaves them indifferent.
—George Steiner (1929–2020) American Critic, Scholar
By far the most dangerous foe we have to fight is apathy – indifference from whatever cause, not from a lack of knowledge, but from carelessness, from absorption in other pursuits, from a contempt bred of self satisfaction.
—William Osler (1849–1919) Canadian Physician
Nothing can contribute more to peace of soul than the lack of any opinion whatever.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all—the apathy of human beings.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
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
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
Hate is not the opposite of love; apathy is.
—Rollo May (1909–94) American Philosopher
People have moved beyond apathy, beyond skepticism into deep cynicism.
—Elliot Richardson (1920–99) American Lawyer, Cabinet Member in four positions
Bad people are less a problem than indifferent people.
—Gerhard Kocher (b.1939) Swiss Publicist, Aphorist
Slums may well be breeding-grounds of crime, but middle-class suburbs are incubators of apathy and delirium.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
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
Indifference is an excellent substitute for patience.
—Mason Cooley (1927–2002) American Aphorist
There is nothing harder than the softness of indifference.
—Juan Montalvo (1832–89) Ecuadorian Author, Essayist
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
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
Tolerance it a tremendous virtue, but the immediate neighbors of tolerance are apathy and weakness.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on.
—Frederic Chopin (1810–49) Polish-French Composer, Pianist
I shall stay the way I am because I do not give a damn.
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American Humorist, Journalist
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