He who fears the opinion of the world more than his own conscience has but little self-respect.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Despise not public opinion.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
The world is ruled by force, not by opinion; but opinion uses force.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
Whosoever is loved by mankind is also loved by the Supreme, but whosoever is not loved by mankind is not loved by the Supreme.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Don’t be swayed just because they say it’s public opinion. Remember, public opinion is simple what everybody else thinks.
—Unknown
The world will only, in the end, follow those who have despised as well as served it.
—Samuel Butler
Three Spaniards, four opinions.
—Spanish Proverb
Where mass opinion dominates the government, there is a morbid derangement of the true functions of power. The derangement brings about the enfeeblement, verging on paralysis, of the capacity to govern. This breakdown in the constitutional order is the cause of the precipitate and catastrophic decline of Western society. It may, if it cannot be arrested and reversed, bring about the fall of the West.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator, Writer
Self-actualized people are independent of the good opinion of others.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
Painting is a faith, and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion.
—Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) Dutch Painter
A man must know how to fly in the face of opinion; a woman to submit to it.
—Anne Louise Germaine de Stael (1766–1817) French Woman of Letters
One must either accept some theory or else believe one’s own instinct or follow the world’s opinion.
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American Writer
The voice of the people is as the voice of God.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to think other men’s thoughts, to speak other men’s words, to follow other men’s habits.
—Walter Bagehot (1826–77) English Economist, Journalist
Every reform was once a private opinion, and when it shall be a private opinion again, it will solve the problem of the age.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Public Opinion… an attempt to organize the ignorance of the community, and to elevate it to the dignity of physical force.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
We must live for the few who know and appreciate us, who judge and absolve us, and for whom we have the same affection and indulgence. The rest I look upon as a mere crowd, lively or sad, loyal or corrupt, from whom there is nothing to be expected but fleeting emotions, either pleasant or unpleasant, which leave no trace behind them.
—Sarah Bernhardt (1844–1923) French Actress
What we call public opinion is generally public sentiment.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
A mass of men equals a mass of opinions.
—Daniel Webster (1782–1852) American Statesman, Lawyer
A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows the public opinion.
—Chinese Proverb
Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
With us, law is nothing unless close, behind it stands a warm, living public opinion. Let that die or grow indifferent, and statutes was waste paper, lacking all executive force.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
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
It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny.
—James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) American Novelist
If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
Public opinion is held in reverence. It settles everything. Some think it is the voice of God.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Not what you say about yourself, but what others say.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
They look for a victim to chivy, and howl him down, and finally lynch him in a sheer storm of sexual frenzy which they honestly imagine to be moral indignation, patriotic passion or some equally allowable emotion, it may be an innocent Negro, a Jew like Leo Frank, a harmless half-witted German; a Christ-like idealist of the type of Debs, an enthusiastic reformer like Emma Goldman.
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) English Occultist, Mystic, Magician
Jesus Christ was crucified by public opinion.
—Russian Proverb
Justice is the result of public opinion.
—Chinese Proverb