Nothing so obstinately stands in the way of all sorts of progress as pride of opinion; while nothing is so foolish and baseless.
—Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819–81) American Editor, Novelist
I care not so much what I am in the opinion of others as what I am in my own; I would be rich of myself and not by borrowing.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
An obstinate person does not hold opinions; they hold them.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
The private citizen, beset by partisan appeals for the loan of his Public Opinion, will soon see, perhaps, that these appeals are not a compliment to his intelligence, but an imposition on his good nature and an insult to his sense of evidence.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator
People talk fundamentals and superlatives and then make some changes of detail.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American Jurist, Author
A fellow can’t keep people from having a bad opinion of him, but he can keep them from being right about it.
—Unknown
The ambitious man grasps at opinion as necessary to his designs; the vain man sues for it as a testimony to his merit; the honest man demands it as his due; and most men consider it as necessary to their existence.
—Cesare Beccaria (1738–94) Italian Jurist, Aristocrat
A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
In every fat book there is a thin book trying to get out.
—Unknown
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
Opinions founded on prejudice are always sustained with the greatest violence.
—Hebrew Proverb
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
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
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
Popular opinion is the greatest lie in the world.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
The world will only, in the end, follow those who have despised as well as served it.
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902) British Victorian Novelist, Essayist, Critic
It is always considered as a piece of impertinence in England, if a man of less than two or three thousand a year has any opinions at all upon important subjects.
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
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
Our opinions become fixed at the point where we stop thinking.
—Ernest Renan (1823–92) French Philosopher, Historian
Every new opinion, at its starting, is precisely in a minority of one.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
When men first take up an opinion, and then seek for reasons for it, they must be contented with such as the absurdity of it will afford.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
A great deal of laziness of mind is called liberty of opinion.
—Unknown
People will in a great degree, and not without reason, form their opinion of you by that they have of your friends, as, says the.
—Spanish Proverb
Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
It has been shrewdly said that when men abuse us, we should suspect ourselves, and when they praise us, them. It is a rare instance of virtue to despise censure which we do not deserve, and still more rare to despise praise, which we do. But that integrity that lives only on opinion would starve without it.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
We would not let ourselves be burned to death for our opinions: we are not sure enough of them for that. But perhaps for the right to have our opinions and to change them.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
We are all of us, more or less, the slaves of opinion.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
We are tod much inclined to under-rate the power of moral influence, the influence of public opmion, and the influence of the principles to which great men—the lights of the world and of the present age—have given their sanction.
—Daniel Webster (1782–1852) American Statesman, Lawyer
Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
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