“In excited times, a politician needs no power of reasoning, no apprehension of impersonal facts, and no shred of wisdom. What he must have is the capacity of persuading the multitude that what they passionately desire is attainable, and that he, through his ruthless determination, is the man to attain it.”
― Bertrand Russell, Power: A New Social Analysis (1938), Ch. III: The Forms of Power, p. 49