OPINION QUOTES

 

 

 

 

Ten gods cannot change the opinion of one fool, especially if another fool agrees with him.

ABRAHAM MILLER, Unmoral Maxim

 

The kind of man who always thinks that he is right, that his opinions, his pronouncements, are the final word, when once exposed shows nothing there. But a wise man has much to learn without a loss of dignity.

SOPHOCLES, Antigone

Your opinion is your opinion, your perception is your perception--do not confuse them with "facts" or "truth". Wars have been fought and millions have been killed because of the inability of men to understand the idea that EVERYBODY has a different viewpoint.

JOHN MOORE, Quotations for Martial Artists

 

The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.

WILLIAM BLAKE, "A Memorable Fancy"

 

There is nothing in the world so easy as giving an opinion; consequently, in general, there are few things so utterly valueless.

CHARLES WILLIAM DAY, The Maxims, Experiences, and Observations of Agogos

 

Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.

JOHN MILTON, Areopagitica

Don't be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.

STEVE JOBS, Commencement address at Stanford University, June 12, 2005

 

The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.

MARK TWAIN, Christian Science

 

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, Note Books

 

 

There is nothing that makes more cowards and feeble men than public opinion.

HENRY WARD BEECHER, Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit

 

 

The first opinion that occurs to us when we are suddenly asked about a matter is usually not our own, but only the customary one, appropriate to our caste, position, or parentage; our own opinions seldom swim near the surface.

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, Human, All Too Human

 

 

General opinion is no proof of truth, for the generality of men are ignorant.

ROBERT DODSLEY, The Economy of Human Life

 

 

Few men think; yet all have opinions.

GEORGE BERKELEY, Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous

 

 

 

 Our opinions are not our own.

WILLIAM HAZLITT, Characteristics

 

 

 

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, Felix Holt

 

 

It is always chilling in friendly intercourse, to say you have no opinion to give. And if you deliver an opinion at all, it is mere stupidity not to do it with an air of conviction and well-founded knowledge. You make it your own in uttering it, and naturally get fond of it.

GEORGE ELIOT, The Mill on the Floss

 

 

 

Few have opinions: fewer still have their own opinions.

IVAN PANIN, Thoughts

 

Do not think of knocking out another person's brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago.

HORACE MANN, Thoughts

 

 

There is simply too much to think about. It is hopeless -- too many kinds of special preparation are required. In electronics, in economics, in social analysis, in history, in psychology, in international politics, most of us are, given the oceanic proliferating complexity of things, paralyzed by the very suggestion that we assume responsibility for so much. This is what makes packaged opinion so attractive.

SAUL BELLOW, "There Is Simply Too Much to Think About", It All Adds Up

 

 

 

To venture an opinion is like moving a piece at chess: it may be taken, but it forms the beginning of a game that is won.

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE, The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe

 

 

Most often people seek in life occasions for persisting in their opinions rather than for educating themselves.

ANDRE GIDE, Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality

 

 

There is simply too much to think about. It is hopeless -- too many kinds of special preparation are required. In electronics, in economics, in social analysis, in history, in psychology, in international politics, most of us are, given the oceanic proliferating complexity of things, paralyzed by the very suggestion that we assume responsibility for so much. This is what makes packaged opinion so attractive.

 

SAUL BELLOW, "There Is Simply Too Much to Think About", It All Adds Up

 

 

Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots.

VICTOR HUGO, Intellectual Autobiography: Ideas on Literature, Philosophy and Religion

 

Studies show that when we vocalize an opinion, whether or not we believe it to be true, in time we usually come to support it.

DAVID J. LIEBERMAN, How to Change Anybody

 

 

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, Felix Holt

 

 

 

 

No errors of opinion can possibly be dangerous in a country where opinion is left free to grapple with them.

WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS, Egeria: Or Voices of Thought and Counsel, for the Woods and Wayside

 

Our opinions are not our own.

WILLIAM HAZLITT, Characteristics

 

 

 

Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

THOMAS JEFFERSON, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801

 

 

 

 

Public opinion is a capricious sea; whoever attempts to navigate it is liable to be tossed about by storms.

WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD, William H. Seward's Travels Around the World

 

 

 

 

 

We all do no end of feeling, and we mistake it for thinking. And out of it we get an aggregation which we consider a boon. Its name is public opinion. It is held in reverence. Some think it the voice of God.

MARK TWAIN, What Is Man? and Other Philosophical Writings

 

I am not one of those who in expressing opinions confine themselves to facts.

MARK TWAIN, What Is Man?

 

 

 

It is only natural, of course, that each man should think his own opinions best: the crow loves his fledgling, and the ape his cub.

THOMAS MORE, Utopia

 

 

 

The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that

it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than

those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose,

what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

JOHN STUART MILL, Utilitarianism, Liberty and Representative Government

 

 

 

The greatest deception which men incur proceeds from their opinions.

LEONARDO DA VINCI, Thoughts on Art and Life

 

 

 

Nothing limits intelligence more than ignorance; nothing fosters ignorance more than one's own opinions; nothing strengthens opinions more than refusing to look at reality.

 

SHERI S. TEPPER, The Visitor

 

Let us resist the opinion of the world fearlessly, provided only that our self-respect grows in proportion to our indifference.

 

MADAME SWETCHINE, "Airelles", The Writings of Madame Swetchine

 

 

 

It is a most toilsome task to run the wild goose chase after a well-breathed opinionist.

NATHANIEL WARD, The Simple Cobbler of Agawam