31 Quotes About Apathy

Having understanding for other people is one of the many ways we connect with others. Showing apathy can leave people feeling disconnected among others. Here are some great quotes about apathy that demonstrate its abilities.

“All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.”

“Apathy adds up, in the long run, to cowardice.”

“Apathy and evil. The two work hand in hand. They are the same, really…. Evil wills it. Apathy allows it. Evil hates the innocent and the defenseless most of all. Apathy doesn’t care as long as it’s not personally inconvenienced.”

“Apathy is a dangerous habit, and history is its greatest testimony.”

“Apathy is a yet another luxury we can no longer afford.”

“Apathy is never positive, and rarely harmless. To be apathetic is to be dispirited, empty of feeling. In its more extreme forms, it is a living death.”

“Apathy is one of the characteristic responses of any living organism when it is subjected to stimuli too intense or too complicated to cope with. The cure for apathy is comprehension.”

“Apathy is the capitulation of personhood, the refusal to grow, to become who we really are. It is the ultimate cop-out — the insistence that things will never change, so why should we.”

“Apathy is the death knell of any order. Once a system has degenerated to the point that apathy is the only thing holding it in place it, it is in its twilight phase. Then one day the music stops.”

“Apathy is the glove in which evil slips its hand.”

“Apathy is the greatest withholder of peace.”

“Apathy is the overrated protection of that rock you’re hiding under.”

“Apathy is the self-defense of the powerless.”

“Apathy. A sort of living oblivion.”

“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”

“Beneath our communal apathy is the burbling outrage of students, parents and teachers, all searching for someone to blame. In our frustration we pass responsibility onto one another and are surprised when nothing changes.”

“Even when I try to stir myself up, I just get irritated because I can’t make anything come out. And in the middle of the night I lie here thinking about all this.”

“Hating requires caring. In which case, I couldn’t possibly hate you.”

“I would rather a romantic relationship turn into contempt than turn into apathy. The passion in the extremities make it appear as though it once meant something. We grow from hot or cold, but lukewarm is the biggest insult.”

“In sullen apathy neither true wisdom nor true happiness can be found.”

“It is … far more important to resist apathy than anarchy or despotism for apathy can give rise, almost indifferently, to either one.”

“It was not apathy. It was an intelligent disinterest in those things that could have no bearing on one’s existence.”

“Mental apathy is stoicism, a calmness of mind incapable of being ruffled by pleasure, pain, or passion.”

“No matter which candidate you support, if we are to ever be truly free, we must stop enslaving one another with apathy.”

“No one seems to care about apathy. There’s a lack of interest, probably because it doesn’t seem important. The general consensus is it’s nothing to get emotional about. Let’s face it, people are apathetic about apathy.”

“Political apathy is the luxury of an affluent society where the majority does not feel threatened and people’s basic needs are met. Under such circumstances, apathy is understandable, predictable, and perhaps even rational.”

“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.”

“The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.”

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”

“The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.”

“Those who choose not to empathize enable real monsters, for without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves we collude with it through our apathy.”

Feelings of apathy change from generation to generation.