I will utter what I believe today, if it should contradict all I said yesterday.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
A great deal of laziness of mind is called liberty of opinion.
—Unknown
As our inclinations, so our opinions.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Altered opinions do not alter a man’s character (or do so very little); but they do illuminate individual aspects of the constellation of his personality which with a different constellation of opinions had hitherto remained dark and unrecognizable.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
The deadliest contagion is majority opinion.
—Indian Proverb
We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.
—Zhuang Zhou (c.369–c.286 BCE) Chinese Taoist Philosopher
To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions.
—Grace Hopper (1906–92) American Naval Officer, Mathematician
But it is just when opinions universally prevail and we have added lip service to their authority that we become sometimes most keenly conscious that we do not believe a word that we are saying.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
Listen, everyone is entitled to my opinion.
—Madonna (b.1958) American Pop Singer, Actress
A public opinion poll is no substitute for thought.
—Warren Buffett (b.1930) American Investor
He that complies against his will is of his own opinion still.
—Samuel Butler
We accumulate our opinions at an age when our understanding is at its weakest.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
Opinion is that high and mighty dame which rules the world, and in the mind doth frame distastes or likings; for in the human race, she makes the fancy various as the face.
—Jeremiah Brown Howell
Opinions are like nails: the more often you hit them the deeper they penetrate.
—Chinese Proverb
Public opinion contains all kinds of falsity and truth, but it takes a great man to find the truth in it. The great man of the age is the one who can put into words the will of his age, tell his age what its will is, and accomplish it. What he does is the heart and the essence of his age, he actualizes his age. The man who lacks sense enough to despise public opinion expressed in gossip will never do anything great.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) German Philosopher
Things are not to be judged good or bad merely because the public think so.
—Tacitus (56–117) Roman Orator, Historian
The person who has no opinion will seldom be wrong.
—Common Proverb
How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
We are all of us, more or less, the slaves of opinion.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
One lesson we learn early, that in spite of seeming difference, men are all of one pattern. We readily assume this with our mates, and are disappointed and angry if we find that we are premature, and that their watches are slower than ours. In fact, the only sin which we never forgive in each other is difference of opinion.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
As changeable is the moon so is the opinion of the woman.
—French Proverb
The history of human opinion is scarcely anything more than the history of human errors.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
The measure of a master is his success in bringing all men around to his opinion twenty years later.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
Be sure to have a controversial opinion, and men will talk about you.
—Arabic Proverb
A flatterer is a man that tells you your opinion and not his own.
—Indian Proverb
A study of the history of opinion is a necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the mind.
—John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) English Economist
If God thought about you as much as you think about Him, where would you be?
—Unknown
Statutes are mere milestones, telling how far yesterday’s thought had travelled; and the talk of the sidewalk today is the law of the land.—With us, law is nothing unless close behind it stands a warm, living public opinion.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
All power, even the most despotic, rests ultimately on opinion.
—David Hume (1711–76) Scottish Philosopher, Historian
Opinions are made to be changed—or how is truth to be got at?
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions makes it impossible to earn a living.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
Broad-minded is just another way of saying a fellow is too lazy to form an opinion.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
The free expression of opinion, as experience has taught us, is the safety-valve of passion. The noise of the rushing steam, when it escapes, alarms the timid; but it is the sign that we are safe. The concession of reasonable privilege anticipates the growth of furious appetite.
—William Ewart Gladstone (1809–98) English Liberal Statesman, Prime Minister
Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
It is the folly of too many to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of the kingdom.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
I think that we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death, unless they so imminently threaten immediate interference with the lawful and pressing purposes of the law that an immediate check is required to save the country.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American Jurist, Author
That the voice of the common people is the voice of God, is as full of falsehood as of commonness.
—Arthur Warwick
You’re entitled to your own opinions. Your are not entitled to your own facts.
—Unknown
Differences of opinion give me but little concern; but it is a real pleasure to be brought into communication with any one who is in earnest, and who really look to God’s will as his standard of right and wrong, and judges of actions according to their greater or less conformity.
—Thomas Arnold (1795–1842) English Educationalist
Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Don’t be swayed just because they say it’s public opinion. Remember, public opinion is simple what everybody else thinks.
—Unknown
The feeble tremble before opinion, the foolish defy it, the wise judge it, the skillful direct it.
—Madame Roland (1754–93) French Writer, Revolutionary
A lawyer’s opinion is worth nothing unless paid for.
—Common Proverb
Public opinion is a weak tyrant, compared with our private opinion – what a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates his fate.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Provided we look to and satisfy our consciences, no matter for opinion; let me deserve well though I hear ill.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.
—Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British Head of State
That was excellently observed, say I, when I read a passage in an author, where his opinion agrees with mine. When we differ, there I pronounce him to be mistaken.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
Fly no opinion because it is new, but strictly search, and after careful view, reject it if false, embrace it if ’tis true.
—Lucretius (c.99–55 BCE) Roman Epicurean Poet, Philosopher