quotes about Public Opinion
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Public opinion, though often formed upon a wrong basis, yet generally has a strong underlying sense of justice.
-- Abraham Lincoln -
The [Nazi party] should not become a constable of public opinion, but must dominate it. It must not become a servant of the masses, but their master!
-- Adolf Hitler -
Public opinion is presumptively an input to policy formation in a democracy because politicians respond to it or at least are believed to respond [to it].
-- Alan Blinder -
Useless knowledge can be made directly contributory to a force of sound and disinterested public opinion.
-- Albert J. Nock -
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The artist is chosen by God to fulfill his commands and must never be overwhelmed by public opinion.
-- Albrecht Durer -
Let experience, the least fallible guide of human opinion, be appealed to for an answer to these inquiries.
-- Alexander Hamilton -
Hitherto my observations have only aimed at a vindication of the provision in question, on the ground of theoretic propriety . . . . But there remains to be mentioned a positive advantage . . . I allude to the circumstance of uniformity in the time of elections for the House of Representatives. It is more than possible, that this uniformity may be found by experience to be of great importance to the public welfare; both as a security against the perpetuation of the same spirit in the body; and as a cure for the diseases of faction.
-- Alexander Hamilton -
There was a time when we were told . . . that a sense of common interest would preside over the conduct of the respective members...This language at the present day would appear as wild as that great part of what we now hear from the same quarter will be thought, when we shall have received further lessons from that best oracle of wisdom, experience.
-- Alexander Hamilton -
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Those who have a tolerable knowledge of human nature will not stand in need of such lights.
-- Alexander Hamilton -
One might almost reckon mathematically that, having undergone the double composition of public opinion and of the author, their history reaches us at third hand and is thus separated by two stages from the original fact.
-- Alfred de Vigny -
While public opinion might sway back and forth, right and wrong do not.
-- Andy Andrews -
Because you're a crime writer you're asked to have a point of view on a lot of things, and I'm uncomfortable having public opinions on things that are not my professional area.
-- Asa Larsson -
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A statesman, we are told, should follow public opinion. Doubtless, as a coachman follows his horses; having firm hold on the reins and guiding them.
-- Augustus Hare -
I have always tried to be obedient regarding important matters like not being scalded to death by burning oil, but when public opinion takes a route far from one's inner conviction, one cannot value disobedience too highly.
-- Barbara Dana -
Israel does not care about the international public opinion.
-- Bashar al-Assad -
One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.
-- Bertrand Russell -
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Public opinion is always more tyrannical towards those who obviously fear it than towards those who feel indifferent to it.
-- Bertrand Russell -
We have seen already how resistant public opinion is, firstly to comprehension of the new paradigm in which we have to operate; and secondly, to the rationale behind the decisions we have had to take.
-- Brian Cowen -
There is a court to which I shall appeal: the court of public opinion.
-- Charles BradlaughSource : Charles Bradlaugh (1890). “Speeches”
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Public opinion is stronger than the legislature, and nearly as strong as the ten commandments.
-- Charles Dudley Warner -
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Publicity is a great purifier because it sets in action the forces of public opinion, and in this country public opinion controls the courses of the nation
-- Charles Evans Hughes -
I know where there is more wisdom than is found in Napoleon, Voltaire, or all the ministers present and to come - in public opinion.
-- Charles Maurice de Talleyrand -
Whatever may be the temporary applause of men, or the expressions of public opinion, it may be asserted without fear of contradiction, that no true and permanent fame can be founded, except in labors which promote the happiness of mankind.
-- Charles SumnerSource : Charles Sumner (1850). “Orations and Speeches [1845-1850]”, p.332
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Journalists should denounce government by public opinion polls.
-- Dan Rather -
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The Lord's truth is not altered by fads, trends or public opinion.
-- David A. Bednar -
Politicians have responsibility to act if the public opinion changes.
-- David Titley -
I think you can not be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.
-- Dick Cheney -
Public-opinion polls show that Americans split about evenly on civil unions. But when the words 'gay marriage' are presented, they break 3-to-1 against it.
-- Dick Morris -
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the heaviest restriction upon the freedom of public opinion is not the official censorship of the Press, but the unofficial censorship by a Press which exists not so much to express opinion as to manufacture it.
-- Dorothy L. Sayers -
Laws that do not embody public opinion can never be enforced.
-- Elbert Hubbard -
Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and bruised itself. We have been enjoined by the courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, traduced by the press, frowned upon in public opinion, and deceived by politicians. 'But notwithstanding all this and all these, labor is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun.
-- Eugene V. Debs -
No man on earth is truly free, All are slaves of money or necessity. Public opinion or fear of prosecution forces each one, against his conscience, to conform.
-- EuripidesSource : Euripides (1958). “Euripides: Hecuba, translated by W. Arrowsmith. Andromache, translated by J. F. Nims. The Trojan women, translated by R. Lattimore. Ion, translated by R. F. Willetts”
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In America, public opinion is the leader
-- Frances PerkinsSource : Frances Perkins (1934). “People at work”
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Public opinion shapes our destinies and guides the progress of human affairs.
-- Frank B. Kellogg -
A government can be no better than the public opinion which sustains it.
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt -
What is public opinion? It is private indolence.
-- Georg BrandesSource : Georg Brandes (2015). “Friedrich Nietzsche (English Edition)”, p.5, WILLIAM HEINEMANN
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I'll tell you what's the greatest power under heaven, and that is public opinion-the ruling belief in society about what is right and what is wrong, what is honourable and what is shameful. That's the steam that is to work the engines.
-- George Eliot -
Public opinion, or what passes for public opinion, is not invariably a moderating force in the jungle of politics.
-- George F. KennanSource : George F. Kennan (2012). “American Diplomacy: Sixtieth-Anniversary Expanded Edition”, p.66, University of Chicago Press
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Public opinion, because of the tremendous urge to conformity in gregarious animals, is less tolerant than any system of law.
-- George Orwell -
I do believe that the buck stops here, that I cannot rely upon public opinion polls to tell me what is right.
-- Gerald R. Ford -
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At any given moment, public opinion is a chaos of superstition, misinformation, and prejudice.
-- Gore VidalSource : Gore Vidal (1969). “Reflections Upon a Sinking Ship. (1. Ed.)”, Boston : Little, Brown
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The power of an aroused public is unbeatable.
-- Helen CaldicottSource : Helen Caldicott, Nancy Herrington, Nahum Stiskin (1982). “Nuclear madness: what you can do! : with a new chapter on Three Mile Island”, Bantam
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There is nothing that makes more cowards and feeble men than public opinion.
-- Henry Ward Beecher -
I do not regret having braved public opinion, when I knew it was wrong and was sure it would be merciless.
-- Horace Greeley -
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American public opinion is like an ocean, it cannot be stirred by a teaspoon.
-- Hubert H. Humphrey -
Public opinion polls are rather like children in a garden, digging things up all the time to see how they're growing.
-- J. B. Priestley -
Only fools, pure theorists, or apprentices fail to take public opinion into account.
-- Jacques Necker -
The Soviet Union's propaganda clearly wishes to use public opinion in this country to get the West to reduce its own arms while doing nothing themselves. In this way they would gain nuclear superiority. This is simply not on.
-- James CallaghanSource : James Callaghan's speech at Cardiff (May 25, 1983), as quoted in "Callaghan defends deterrent" by Tim Jones in The Times (p. 1), May 26, 1983.
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Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one.
-- James Madison -
But being in the closet uniquely assisted me in politics. From my first run for the state legislature until my election as governor, all too often I was not leading but following my best guess at public opinion.
-- James McGreevey -
If a radical devolution of powers was possible, it would have been done before. The assumption of states' rights is gone. There's no support for it in the Supreme Court and there's no support for it in public opinion
-- James Q. WilsonSource : "No Easy Answers: An Interview with James Q. Wilson". Interview with William D. Eggers and John O'Leary, reason.com. February 1995.
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The pressure of public opinion is like the pressure of the atmosphere; you can't see it - but all the same, it is sixteen pounds to the square inch.
-- James Russell Lowell -
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Private opinion creates public opinion. Public opinion overflows eventually into national behavior as things are arranged at present, can make or mar the world. That is why private opinion, and private behavior, and private conversation are so terrifyingly important.
-- Jan Struther -
From whichever angle one looks at it, the application of racial theories remains a striking proof of the lowered demands of public opinion upon the purity of critical judgment.
-- Johan Huizinga -
What concerns all, should be considered by all; and individuals may injure a whole society, by not declaring their sentiments. It is therefore not only their right, but their duty, to declare them.
-- John DickinsonSource : John Dickinson (1801). “The Political Writings of John Dickinson, Esquire: Late President of the State of Delaware, and of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania”, p.72
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Public opinion's always in advance of the law.
-- John Galsworthy -
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It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion.
-- Joseph Goebbels -
All Governments rest mainly on public opinion, and to that of his own subjects every wise Sovereign will look. The opinion of his subjects will force a Sovereign to do his duty, and by that opinion will he be exalted or depressed in the politics of the world.
-- Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron KenyonSource : Trial of John Vint and others, 27 How. St. Tr. 640, 1799.
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A man must know how to fly in the face of opinion; a woman to submit to it.
-- Madame de Stael -
We live in a society obsessed with public opinion. But leadership has never been about popularity.
-- Marco Rubio -
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Sound conviction should influence us rather than public opinion.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero -
Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum. (Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.)
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero -
Public opinion is the last refuge of a politician without any opinion.
-- Mark Bonham Carter, Baron Bonham-Carter -
The course of business shapes public opinion.
-- Marvin BowerSource : "The development of executive leadership", by Marvin Bower, Harvard University, Graduate School of Business Administration. (p. v), 1949.
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Public opinion is the worst of all opinions.
-- Nicolas Chamfort -
Nowadays public opinion is not the sum of private opinions. On the contrary, private opinions are an echo of public opinion
-- Nicolas Gomez Davila -
Public opinion can be influential, the media can be influential.
-- Noam Chomsky -
I've seen public opinion shift like the wind and put out the very fire it lighted.
-- Rachel Field -
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Rhetoric, which is the use of language to inform or persuade, is very important in shaping public opinion. We are very easily fooled by language and how it is used by others.
-- Ray Comfort -
I have never understood why public opinion about European ideas should be taken into account.
-- Raymond Barre -
Public opinion has been evolving nationwide when it comes to ***** policy, and Californians have always been ahead of the curve.
-- Rob Kampia -
No minister ever stood, or could stand, against public opinion.
-- Robert Peel -
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Public opinion is a compound of folly, weakness, prejudice, wrong feeling, right feeling, obstinacy, and newspaper paragraphs.
-- Robert Peel -
The big powers are traveling on the dangerous road of armament. The signpost just ahead of us is 'Oblivion.' Can the march on this road be stopped? Yes, if public opinion uses the power it now has.
-- Sean MacBride -
The revolutionary despises public opinion. He despises and hates the existing social morality in all its manifestations. For him, morality is everything which contributes to the triumph of the revolution. Immoral and criminal is everything that stands in its way.
-- Sergey NechayevSource : "The Revolutionary Catechism" by Sergey Nechayev, www.marxists.org. 1869.
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The only remaining superpower is international public opinion.
-- Simon Anholt -
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public opinion, the sum of private opinions, does matter, can matter often for good.
-- Sybille BedfordSource : Sybille Bedford (2017). “A Favourite of the Gods and A Compass Error”, p.280, New York Review of Books
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The court doesn't follow public opinion. The court's views are radically out of step with public opinion.
-- Ted Cruz -
When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground.
-- Thomas Jefferson -
If the freedom of religion, guaranteed to us by law in theory, can ever rise in practice under the overbearing inquisition of public opinion, [then and only then will truth]prevail over fanaticism.
-- Thomas Jefferson -
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Painting is a faith, and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion.
-- Vincent Van Gogh -
The common interests very largely elude public opinion entirely, and can be managed only by a specialised class.
-- Walter Lippmann -
Newspapers necessarilyand inevitably reflect, and therefore, in greater or lesser measure, intensify, the defective organization of public opinion.
-- Walter Lippmann -
Democracy is much too important to be left to public opinion.
-- Walter Lippmann -
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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 -
Judges . . . rule on the basis of law, not public opinion, and they should...
-- Warren E. Burger -
Law is nothing unless close behind it stands a warm, living public opinion.
-- Wendell Phillips -
We are so busy measuring public opinion that we forget we can mold it. We are so busy listening to statistics we forget we can create them.
-- William Bernbach -
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When we are high and airy hundreds say That if we hold that flight they'll leave the place, While those same hundreds mock another day Because we have made our art of common things ...
-- William Butler Yeats -
Nothing is more unjust or capricious than public opinion.
-- William HazlittSource : William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1476, Delphi Classics
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Public opinion, a vulgar, impertinent, anonymous tyrant who deliberately makes life unpleasant for anyone who is not content to the average person.
-- William Ralph Inge -
Public opinion is a second conscience.
-- William Rounseville Alger -
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Public opinion is the atmosphere of society, without which the forces of the individual would collapse, and all the institutions of society fly into atoms.
-- William Rounseville AlgerSource : William Rounseville Alger (1867). “The Solitudes of Nature and of Man, Or, The Loneliness of Human Life”, p.99
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As the senior commander in Vietnam, I was aware of the potency of public opinion - and I worried about it.
-- William Westmoreland -
There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.
-- Winston Churchill -
Public opinion is the pennant on a nation's mast which shows the politician and the editor how to trim the sails.
-- Austin O'Malley -
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I can assure you that everyone that talks to me doesn't share my views. I seem to be a barometer of public opinion.
-- Cory BernardiSource : Source: www.abc.net.au
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Governments will always misuse the machinery of the law as far as the state of public opinion permits.
-- Emile Capouya -
People have tried to corner the market on being offended, corner the market on language and corner the market on opinion. Should I lose my job 'cause I offended somebody? No, of course not. Your life should never be affected by public opinion.
-- Patrice O'Neal -
The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in its milk, on the principle that it is cheaper to do this than to keep a cow. So it is, but the milk is more likely to be watered.
-- Samuel Butler -