History is a voice forever sounding across the centuries the laws of right and wrong. Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity. For every false word or unrighteous deed, for cruelty and oppression, for lust or vanity, the price has to be paid at last.
—James Anthony Froude (1818–94) British Historian, Novelist, Biographer, Editor
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
Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
Opinions are made to be changed—or how is truth to be got at?
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
People talk fundamentals and superlatives and then make some changes of detail.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American Jurist, Author
Popular opinions, on subjects not palpable to sense, are often true, but seldom or never the whole truth.
—John Stuart Mill (1806–73) English Philosopher, Economist
Opinion of ghosts, ignorance of second causes, devotion to what men fear, and talking of things casual for prognostics, consisteth the natural seeds of religion
—Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) English Political Philosopher
A yawn may not be polite, but at least it is an honest opinion
—Indian Proverb
It’s the opinion of some that crops could be grown on the moon; which raises the fear that it may not be long before we’re paying somebody not to.
—Franklin P. Jones
Every new opinion, at its starting, is precisely in a minority of one.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
So long as there are earnest believers in the world, they will always wish to punish opinions, even if their judgment tells them it is unwise and their conscience that it is wrong.
—Walter Bagehot (1826–77) English Economist, Journalist
I agree with no one’s opinion. I have some of my own.
—Ivan Turgenev (1818–83) Russian Novelist, Playwright
Public opinion is held in reverence. It settles everything. Some think it is the voice of God.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
It is as certain that many opinions, now general, will be rejected by future ages, as it is that many, once general, are rejected by the present.
—John Stuart Mill (1806–73) English Philosopher, Economist
The only means of strengthening one’s intellect is to make up one’s mind about nothing—to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts. Not a select party.
—John Keats (1795–1821) English Poet
Opinions cannot survive if one has no chance to fight for them.
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German Novelist, Short Story Writer, Social Critic, Philanthropist, Essayist
In my opinion a mathematician need not preoccupy himself with philosophy—An opinion, moreover, which has been expressed by many philosophers.
—Indian Proverb
My play was a complete success. The audience was a failure.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Popular opinion is the greatest lie in the world.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
It is a golden rule that one should never judge men by their opinions, but rather by what their opinions make of them.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
Nothing is more unjust or capricious than public opinion.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
A public opinion poll is no substitute for thought.
—Warren Buffett (b.1930) American Investor
He who has no opinion of his own, but depends upon the opinion and taste of others, is a slave.
—Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724–1803) German Poet
People with many opinions tend not to believe in anything.
—Indian Proverb
The feeble tremble before opinion, the foolish defy it, the wise judge it, the skillful direct it.
—Madame Roland (1754–93) French Writer, Revolutionary
Well, my deliberate opinion is – it’s a jolly strange world.
—Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) British Novelist, Playwright, Critic
There never were in the world two opinions alike, no more than two hairs or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widely spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
The bell of public opinion is today making the Morgan-Rockefeller-Vanderbilt class jump. Nor are the strongest of our corporations immune. The railroads have had to jump pretty lively, and certain gigantic industrial combinations are also being put through their paces.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
We are very much what others think of us. The reception our observations meet with gives us courage to proceed, or damps our efforts.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
When people are intimidated about having their own opinions, oppression is at hand.
—Unknown
The time will come when public opinion will no longer tolerate amusements based on the mistreatment and killing of animals. The time will come, but when? When will we reach the point that hunting, the pleasure in killing animals for sport, will be regarded as a mental aberration?
—Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Musician, Philosopher, Physician
I’ve never had a humble opinion in my life. If you’re going to have one, why bother to be humble about it?
—Joan Baez (b.1941) American Singer, Songwriter, Musician
We accumulate our opinions at an age when our understanding is at its weakest.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
Judge men not by their opinions but by what their opinions have made of them.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) American Social Reformer
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
Under the species of Syndicalism and Fascism there appears for the first time in Europe a type of man who does not want to give reasons or to be right, but simply shows himself resolved to impose his opinions.
—Jose Ortega y. Gasset (1883–1955) Spanish Critic, Journalist, Philosopher
Arguments only confirm people in their own opinions.
—Booth Tarkington (1869–1946) American Novelist, Dramatist
Opinions are the cheapest commodities in the world.
—Unknown
Self-actualized people are independent of the good opinion of others.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
Listen, everyone is entitled to my opinion.
—Madonna (b.1958) American Pop Singer, Actress
My opinion, my conviction, gains immensely in strength and sureness the minute a second mind as adopted it.
—Novalis (1772–1801) German Romantic Poet, Novelist
One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions.
—Grace Hopper (1906–92) American Naval Officer, Mathematician
Opinions, like showers, are generated in high places, but they invariably descend into lower ones, and ultimately flow down to the people, as rain unto the sea.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
A study of the history of opinion is a necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the mind.
—John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) English Economist
Public opinion is stronger than the legislature, and nearly as strong as the ten commandments.
—Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) American Essayist, Novelist
Hardly a man in the world has an opinion upon morals, politics or religion which he got otherwise than through his associations and sympathies. Broadly speaking, there are none but corn-pone opinions. And broadly speaking, Corn-Pone stands for Self-Approval. Self-approval is acquired mainly from the approval of other people. The result is Conformity.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Opinions are to the vast apparatus of social existence what oil is to machines: one does not go up to a turbine and pour machine oil over it; one applies a little to hidden spindles and joints that one has to know.
—Walter Benjamin