Sources
Every quotation on this site is a short excerpt from a work in the public domain in the United States (or a United States government work, or a United Nations document). Each is shown with who said or wrote it, in what work, and when, and with the translator where there is one. The wording was checked against the source linked below.
No endorsement. Every person, author, scholar, institution, government body, religion and tradition named or quoted here appears only for attribution or reference. None of them has reviewed, approved, sponsored or endorsed this site or my ideas, and none is affiliated with it. A quotation shows what someone wrote or said, not that they agree with me. The studies, documents and events cited are shown as public facts and records; the interpretations and conclusions drawn from them are mine alone.
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“O mankind! Lo! We have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another.”
The Quran, Quran 49:13, translated by M. M. Pickthall, revealed c. 630 CE; translation 1930.
Status: translation published 1930 (US public domain since 1 Jan 2026).
Source text
“The sons of Adam are members one of another, for in their creation they have a common origin. If the vicissitudes of fortune involve one member in pain, all the other members will feel a sympathy.”
Sa'di, Gulistan (Rose Garden), translated by James Ross, 1258; translation 1823.
Status: translation 1823.
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“We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…”
The Continental Congress, Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776.
Status: 1776 document.
Source text
“Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.”
Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, Part the Second, Ch. V, 1792.
Status: author d. 1809.
Source text
“So act as to treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of any other, in every case as an end withal, never as means only.”
Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, translated by T. K. Abbott, 1785; translation 1873.
Status: author d. 1804; translation 1873.
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“Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business.”
Charles Dickens, spoken by the ghost of Jacob Marley, A Christmas Carol, Stave I, 1843.
Status: author d. 1870.
Source text
“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
The Psalmist, Psalm 90:12, King James Version, traditionally c. 1400-500 BCE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
Source text
“Despise not any man, and carp not at any thing; for there is not a man that has not his hour, and there is not a thing that has not its place.”
Ben Azzai, Pirkei Avot 4:3, translated by Joseph I. Gorfinkle, c. 200 CE; translation 1913.
Status: translation 1913.
Source text
“Is not RECIPROCITY such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”
Confucius, The Analects, 15:23, translated by James Legge, c. 500 BCE; translation 1861, revised 1893.
Status: translation 1861 / 1893.
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“In matters of the intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard to any other consideration.”
T. H. Huxley, “Agnosticism”, Nineteenth Century, February 1889.
Status: author d. 1895.
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“What is toleration? It is the appurtenance of humanity. We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies–it is the first law of nature.”
Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary, “Toleration”, translated by William F. Fleming, 1764; translation 1901.
Status: translation 1901.
Source text
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”
The Psalmist, Psalm 133:1, King James Version, KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
Source text
“For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature…”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book II, translated by George Long, c. 170-180 CE; translation 1862.
Status: translation 1862.
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“I propose a life ordinary and without lustre: 'tis all one; all moral philosophy may as well be applied to a common and private life, as to one of richer composition: every man carries the entire form of human condition.”
Michel de Montaigne, Essays III.2, “Of Repentance”, translated by Charles Cotton, 1588; translation 1685.
Status: translation 1685.
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“Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and the more steadily we reflect on them: the starry heavens above and the moral law within.”
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason, translated by T. K. Abbott, 1788; translation 1873.
Status: author d. 1804; translation 1873.
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“If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown!”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, Ch. 1, 1836.
Status: author d. 1882.
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“These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country…”
Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. I, December 1776.
Status: author d. 1809.
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“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.”
Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, 1 December 1862.
Status: author d. 1865.
Source text
“If I am not for myself who is for me? and being for my own self what am I? If not now when?”
Hillel the Elder, Pirkei Avot 1:14, in Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, translated by Charles Taylor, c. 30 BCE-10 CE; translation 1897.
Status: translation 1897.
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“It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume, is to do at any time what I think right.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Resistance to Civil Government”, 1849.
Status: author d. 1862.
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“Find full reward / Of doing right in right! Let right deeds be / Thy motive, not the fruit which comes from them.”
Krishna to Arjuna, The Bhagavad Gita, ch. 2, in The Song Celestial, translated by Edwin Arnold, c. 400 BCE-200 CE; translation 1885.
Status: translation 1885.
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“While I have always recognized that the object of business is to make money in an honorable manner, I have endeavored to remember that the object of life is to do good.”
Peter Cooper, remarks at a reception in his honor, quoted in Rossiter W. Raymond, Peter Cooper, 1874 (biography 1901).
Status: Cooper d. 1883; biography 1901.
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“…we do not receive a short life, but we make it a short one, and we are not poor in days, but wasteful of them.”
Seneca, On the Shortness of Life, translated by Aubrey Stewart, c. 49 CE; translation 1889.
Status: translation 1889.
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“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.”
Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, Book I, 1605.
Status: published 1605.
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“THERE IS NO WEALTH BUT LIFE. Life, including all its powers of love, of joy, and of admiration. That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings…”
John Ruskin, Unto This Last, 1860.
Status: author d. 1900.
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“…the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”
Henry David Thoreau, Walden, “Economy”, 1854.
Status: author d. 1862.
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“But what improves the circumstances of the greater part, can never be regarded as any inconveniency to the whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.”
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Ch. 8, 1776.
Status: author d. 1790.
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“This association of poverty with progress is the great enigma of our times.”
Henry George, Progress and Poverty, Introduction, 1879.
Status: author d. 1897.
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“It was we, the people, not we, the white male citizens, nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed this Union.”
Susan B. Anthony, “Is It a Crime for a U.S. Citizen to Vote?” (printed in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle), 1873.
Status: author d. 1906.
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“The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it…”
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Ch. V, 1859.
Status: author d. 1873.
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“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him?”
The Psalmist, Psalm 8:3-4, King James Version, traditionally c. 1000-500 BCE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
Source text
“Man is but a reed, weakest in nature, but a reed which thinks. It needs not that the whole Universe should arm to crush him.”
Blaise Pascal, Pensées, translated by C. Kegan Paul, 1670; translation 1885.
Status: translation 1885.
Source text
“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
Prophet Micah, Micah 6:8, King James Version, c. 8th century BCE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
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“Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?”
Job, Job 31:15, King James Version, c. 500 BCE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
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“TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.”
Daniel, to King Belshazzar, Daniel 5:27, King James Version, set c. 539 BCE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
Source text
“Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.”
Isaiah, Isaiah 45:15, King James Version, c. 700-540 BCE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
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“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address to the Nation, 17 January 1961.
Status: US government work.
Source text
“What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment?”
Job, Job 7:17-18, King James Version, c. 500 BCE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
Source text
“A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence.”
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, 1748.
Status: published 1748.
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“Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he.”
Jesus, as narrated in John, John 13:19, King James Version, c. 90 CE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
Source text
“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Second Inaugural Address, 20 January 1937.
Status: US government work.
Source text
“Doth Job fear God for nought?”
The accuser, in the Book of Job, Job 1:9, King James Version, c. 500 BCE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
Source text
“But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”
Amos, Amos 5:24, King James Version, c. 760 BCE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
Source text
“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
Abraham, Genesis 18:25, King James Version, c. 600 BCE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
Source text
“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.”
Proverbs, Proverbs 25:2, King James Version, c. 950-700 BCE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
Source text
“…for man always believes more readily that which he prefers.”
Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, Book I, aphorism XLIX, translated by Joseph Devey, 1620; translation 1844.
Status: translation 1844.
Source text
“There is enough light for those who only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition.”
Blaise Pascal, Pensées, no. 430, translated by W. F. Trotter, 1670; translation 1910.
Status: translation 1910.
Source text
“…it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.”
Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, Part I, Ch. I, 1794.
Status: author d. 1809.
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“…that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man”
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, Part 1, written 1771-1790.
Status: author d. 1790.
Source text
“But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:”
Jesus, as narrated in Matthew, Matthew 6:3, King James Version, c. 80 CE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
Source text
“Labour was the first price, the original purchase money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all the wealth of the world was originally purchased…”
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Ch. 5, 1776.
Status: author d. 1790.
Source text
“Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.”
T. H. Huxley, letter to Charles Kingsley, in Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley, 23 September 1860.
Status: author d. 1895.
Source text
“…the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact…”
T. H. Huxley, “Biogenesis and Abiogenesis”, address to the British Association, 1870.
Status: author d. 1895.
Source text
“Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink.”
Daniel, Daniel 1:12, King James Version, set c. 600 BCE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
Source text
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.”
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book III, Ch. 4, 1776.
Status: author d. 1790.
Source text
“If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”
John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, 20 January 1961.
Status: US government work.
Source text
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds…”
Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, 4 March 1865.
Status: author d. 1865.
Source text
“Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?”
Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes 3:21, King James Version, c. 300 BCE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
Source text
“We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.”
Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, 1 December 1862.
Status: author d. 1865.
Source text
“Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.”
Abraham Lincoln, Cooper Union Address, 27 February 1860.
Status: author d. 1865.
Source text
“The sage does not accumulate (for himself). The more that he expends for others, the more does he possess of his own; the more that he gives to others, the more does he have himself.”
Laozi, Tao Te Ching, ch. 81, translated by James Legge, c. 6th-4th century BCE; translation 1891.
Status: translation 1891.
Source text
“For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:”
Jesus, as narrated in Matthew, Matthew 25:35, King James Version, c. 80 CE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
Source text
“No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations X.16, translated by George Long, c. 170 CE; translation 1862.
Status: translation 1862.
Source text
“He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.”
Proverbs, Proverbs 14:31, King James Version, c. 950-700 BCE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
Source text
“Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.”
Proverbs, Proverbs 31:8-9, King James Version, c. 500 BCE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
Source text
“For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule.”
Buddhist tradition, The Dhammapada, v. 5, translated by F. Max Müller, c. 5th-3rd century BCE; translation 1881.
Status: translation 1881.
Source text
“Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all.”
George Washington, Farewell Address, 19 September 1796.
Status: author d. 1799.
Source text
“…there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it.”
Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part I, Ch. 1, 1759.
Status: author d. 1790.
Source text
“Who hateth nought / Of all which lives, living himself benign, / Compassionate, from arrogance exempt, / Exempt from love of self, unchangeable / By good or ill; patient, contented, firm / In faith, mastering himself…”
Krishna to Arjuna, The Bhagavad Gita, ch. 12, in The Song Celestial, translated by Edwin Arnold, c. 200 BCE; translation 1885.
Status: translation 1885.
Source text
“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.”
Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”, Rochester, New York, 5 July 1852.
Status: author d. 1895.
Source text
“…while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”
Eugene V. Debs, statement to the court at his sentencing, Cleveland, 18 September 1918.
Status: published 1918.
Source text
“The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.”
Andrew Carnegie (describing the public’s verdict on hoarded wealth), “Wealth” (later “The Gospel of Wealth”), North American Review, June 1889.
Status: author d. 1919.
Source text
“We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address to the Nation, 17 January 1961.
Status: US government work.
Source text
“…the good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain, is floating in mid-air, until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.”
Jane Addams, Twenty Years at Hull-House, Ch. VI, 1910.
Status: published 1910.
Source text
“…the more extraordinary the event, the greater the need of its being supported by strong proofs.”
Pierre-Simon Laplace, A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities, translated by Truscott and Emory, 1814; translation 1902.
Status: translation 1902.
Source text
“…nature is only to be commanded by obeying her.”
Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, Book I, aphorism CXXIX, translated by Joseph Devey, 1620; translation 1844.
Status: translation 1844.
Source text
“To sum up: it is wrong always, everywhere and for any one, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.”
W. K. Clifford, “The Ethics of Belief”, Contemporary Review, January 1877.
Status: author d. 1879.
Source text
“The mind of the superior man is conversant with righteousness; the mind of the mean man is conversant with gain.”
Confucius, The Analects, 4:16, translated by James Legge, c. 450 BCE; translation 1861.
Status: translation 1861.
Source text
“False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for every one takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness…”
Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, Ch. XXI, 1871.
Status: author d. 1882.
Source text
“He who knows other men is discerning; he who knows himself is intelligent. He who overcomes others is strong; he who overcomes himself is mighty. He who is satisfied with his lot is rich…”
Laozi, Tao Te Ching, ch. 33, translated by James Legge, c. 400 BCE; translation 1891.
Status: translation 1891.
Source text
“Let a man overcome anger by love, let him overcome evil by good; let him overcome the greedy by liberality, the liar by truth!”
Buddhist tradition, The Dhammapada, v. 223, translated by F. Max Müller, c. 300 BCE; translation 1881.
Status: translation 1881.
Source text
“This breath that we hold so dear will soon leave us: in the meantime, while we draw it, while we live among human beings, let us practise humanity: let us not be a terror or a danger to any one.”
Seneca, On Anger (De Ira), Book III, translated by Aubrey Stewart, c. 41 CE; translation 1889.
Status: translation 1889.
Source text
“Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
Exodus, Exodus 23:9, King James Version, c. 600 BCE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
Source text
“But, dost thou love life? then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of”
Benjamin Franklin, as “Poor Richard”, The Way to Wealth, 1758.
Status: author d. 1790.
Source text
“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”
Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes 9:10, King James Version, c. 300 BCE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
Source text
“For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.”
Paul, Romans 11:32, King James Version, c. 57 CE; KJV 1611.
Status: King James Version, 1611.
Source text
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”
United Nations General Assembly, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1, 10 December 1948.
Status: UN document, reproduction permitted by UN policy.
Source text
“…And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers, And that a kelson of the creation is love,”
Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”, section 5, Leaves of Grass (1892 edition), 1855; this wording 1892.
Status: author d. 1892.
Source text
“…the final outcome and consummation of all wealth is in the producing as many as possible full-breathed, bright-eyed, and happy-hearted human creatures.”
John Ruskin, Unto This Last, essay IV, 1860 (Cornhill Magazine), book 1862.
Status: author d. 1900.
Source text
“There is indeed a law, right reason, which is in accordance with nature; existing in all, unchangeable, eternal. Commanding us to do what is right, forbidding us to do what is wrong.”
Cicero, De Re Publica, Book III, translated by G. W. Featherstonhaugh, c. 51 BCE; translation 1829.
Status: translation 1829.
Source text
“Lost time is never found again; and what we call time enough, always proves little enough.”
Benjamin Franklin, as “Poor Richard”, The Way to Wealth, 1758.
Status: author d. 1790.
Source text
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”
John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra, 1911.
Status: published 1911.
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“…the best means of benefiting the community is to place within its reach the ladders upon which the aspiring can rise…”
Andrew Carnegie, “Wealth” (later “The Gospel of Wealth”), North American Review, June 1889.
Status: author d. 1919.
Source text
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity…”
John Muir, Our National Parks, Ch. 1, 1901.
Status: published 1901.
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“A ploughman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees…”
Benjamin Franklin, as “Poor Richard”, The Way to Wealth, 1758.
Status: author d. 1790.
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“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear–not absence of fear.”
Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson, chapter epigraph, 1894.
Status: published 1894.
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“…whenever a published fact, a new observation or thought came across me, which was opposed to my general results, to make a memorandum of it without fail and at once…”
Charles Darwin, Autobiography, in Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, written 1876; published 1887.
Status: author d. 1882.
Source text
“…warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally. This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind.”
George Washington, Farewell Address, 19 September 1796.
Status: author d. 1799.
Source text
“…the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.”
George Washington, Farewell Address, 19 September 1796.
Status: author d. 1799.
Source text
“I have learnt that all men live not by care for themselves but by love.”
Leo Tolstoy, spoken by the angel Michael, What Men Live By, translated by Aylmer Maude, 1881; translation 1906.
Status: translation 1906.
Source text
Research cited
The slide “What the research says” summarizes these three papers in plain words. It does not quote them.
Edward L. Deci, 1971. “Effects of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 18(1), 105–115.
doi:10.1037/h0030644
Mark R. Lepper, David Greene and Richard E. Nisbett, 1973. “Undermining children’s intrinsic interest with extrinsic reward: A test of the ‘overjustification’ hypothesis.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 28(1), 129–137.
doi:10.1037/h0035519
Edward L. Deci, Richard Koestner and Richard M. Ryan, 1999. “A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation.” Psychological Bulletin 125(6), 627–668.
doi:10.1037/0033-2909.125.6.627
Caveat: the size of this effect is debated. A 1994 meta-analysis by Judy Cameron and W. David Pierce, “Reinforcement, reward, and intrinsic motivation,” Review of Educational Research 64(3), 363–423, found the effect limited to certain kinds of reward and conditions.
doi:10.2307/1170677
Experiments and records cited
Solomon E. Asch, 1956. “Studies of independence and conformity: I. A minority of one against a unanimous majority.” Psychological Monographs 70(9), 1–70. (First reported 1951.)
doi:10.1037/h0093718
Stanley Milgram, 1963. “Behavioral study of obedience.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 67(4), 371–378.
doi:10.1037/h0040525
Muzafer Sherif and others, 1954 camp study, reported in Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation: The Robbers Cave Experiment (1961).
Sherif, Experiments in group conflict
Caveat: this study has critics. Gina Perry’s book The Lost Boys (2018) argues that the researchers steered events and that a nearly identical 1953 attempt did not produce the same conflict between the groups. Reviewers disagree about how far that criticism goes.
John M. Darley and Bibb Latané, 1968. “Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 8(4), 377–383.
doi:10.1037/h0025589
Henri Tajfel, M. G. Billig, R. P. Bundy and Claude Flament, 1971. “Social categorization and intergroup behaviour.” European Journal of Social Psychology 1(2), 149–178.
doi:10.1002/ejsp.2420010202
Ernst Fehr and Simon Gächter, 2002. “Altruistic punishment in humans.” Nature 415, 137–140.
doi:10.1038/415137a
M. G. Marmot, G. Rose, M. Shipley and P. J. S. Hamilton, 1978. “Employment grade and coronary heart disease in British civil servants.” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 32(4), 244–249 (the Whitehall study, begun 1967).
doi:10.1136/jech.32.4.244
The Christmas Truce of 1914: informal ceasefires along parts of the Western Front, December 1914.
Overview and sources
U.S. government UAP records: the Department of War release site, the National Archives UAP Records Collection (Record Group 615), and the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. Read the primary files, and the official conclusions in them, for yourself.
War.gov/UFO · National Archives · AARO