quotations about opinion
Our opinions are not our own.
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Characteristics
I've had my say out, and I shall be the' easier for't all my life. There's no pleasure i' living, if you're to be corked up forever, and only dribble your mind out by the sly, like a leaky barrel.
GEORGE ELIOT
Adam Bede
At any given moment, public opinion is a chaos of superstition, misinformation, and prejudice.
GORE VIDAL
"Sex and the Law", Homage to Daniel Shays
Every war is the result of a difference of opinion. Maybe the biggest questions can only be answered by the greatest of conflicts.
J. C. DENTON
Deus Ex
Inquire not what are the opinions of any one; but inquire what is truth.
JOHN CALVIN
attributed, Day's Collacon
All opinions begin and end in vanity.
MONIMUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch.
BETTE DAVIS
attributed, Newsweek, 1994
We all do no end of feeling, and we mistake it for thinking. And out of it we get an aggregation which we consider a boon. Its name is public opinion. It is held in reverence. Some think it the voice of God.
MARK TWAIN
What Is Man? and Other Philosophical Writings
Let opinion be free as mountain air, and not be confined by demagogues or priests, by metaphysicians or dogmatists, by kings or popes, but based on reason and revelation.
LEVI CARROLL JUDSON
The Moral Probe: Or, One Hundred and Two Essays on the Nature of Men and Things
He who would propagate an opinion must begin by making sure of his ground and holding it firmly. There is as little use in trying to breed from weak opinion as from other weak stock.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Notebooks
In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE
Democracy in America
No liberal man would impute a charge of unsteadiness to another for having changed his opinion.
CICERO
attributed, Day's Collacon
Do not despise the opinion of the world; you might as well say that you care not for the light of the sun because you can use a candle.
LEON GOZLAN
attributed, Day's Collacon
Many, if not most, good ideas die young -- mainly from neglect on the part of the parents, but sometimes from over-fondness. Once well started, an opinion had better be left to shift for itself.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Notebooks
Public opinion overflows eventually into national behaviour and national behaviour, as things are arranged at present, can make or mar the world. That is why private opinion, and private behaviour, and private conversation are so terrifyingly important.
JAN STRUTHER
"The Weather of the World", A Pocketful of Pebbles
Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
speech in Chicago, Illinois, December 10, 1856
That queen of error, whom we call fancy and opinion, is the more deceitful because she does not deceive always; she would be the infallible rule of truth if she were the infallible rule of falsehood.
PASCAL
attributed, Day's Collacon
People can tell you to keep your mouth shut, but that doesn't stop you from having your own opinion.
ANNE FRANK
The Diary of a Young Girl
New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.
JOHN LOCKE
dedicatory epistle, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
In a Society in which there is no law, and in theory no compulsion, the only arbiter of behaviour is public opinion. But public opinion, because of the tremendous urge to conformity in gregarious animals, is less tolerant than any system of law.
GEORGE ORWELL
"Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels", Polemic, September/October 1946