quotations about opinion
Unity of opinion is indeed a glorious and desirable thing, and its circle cannot be too strong and extended, if the centre be truth; but if the centre be error, the greater the circumference, the greater the evil.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
No liberal man would impute a charge of unsteadiness to another for having changed his opinion.
CICERO
attributed, Day's Collacon
Opinion is a medium between knowledge and ignorance.
PLATO
attributed, Day's Collacon
It is opinion that has exalted the appearance of virtue above virtue itself; hence the good opinion of men becomes not only useful but necessary to every one, to prevent him sinking below the common level. The ambitious man grasps at it as being necessary to his designs; the vain man sues for it as a testimony of his merit; the honest man demands it as his due; and most men consider it as necessary to their existence.
J. B. BECCARIA
attributed, Day's Collacon
You deal in the raw material of opinion, and, if my convictions have any validity, opinion ultimately governs the world.
WOODROW WILSON
address to the Associated Press, April 20, 1915
Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The Statue of Virginia for Religious Freedom
When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch.
BETTE DAVIS
attributed, Newsweek, 1994
That queen of error, whom we call fancy and opinion, is the more deceitful because she does not deceive always; she would be the infallible rule of truth if she were the infallible rule of falsehood.
PASCAL
attributed, Day's Collacon
The greater the man, the less is he opinionative, he depends upon events and circumstances.
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
attributed, Political Aphorisms, Moral and Philosophical Thoughts
Nothing can contribute more to peace of soul than the lack of any opinion whatever.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook E", Aphorisms
Opinion is the blind goddess of fools.
GEORGE CHAPMAN
attributed, Day's Collacon
It is not advisable ... to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener.
AYN RAND
Atlas Shrugged
We are most likely to get angry and excited in our opposition to some idea when we ourselves are not quite certain of our own position, and are inwardly tempted to take the other side.
THOMAS MANN
Buddenbrooks
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
If then I am addressing one of that numerous class, who read to be told what to think, let me advise you to meddle with the book no further. You wish to buy a house ready furnished: do not come to look for it in a stonequarry. But if you are building up your opinions for yourself, and only want to be provided with materials, you may meet with many things in these pages to suit you.
JULIUS HARE
Guesses at Truth
It is an unpleasant thing to differ in opinion with the rest of one's species -- it is making a sort of North Pole of one's own, and then setting out in search of it.
LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON
The New Monthly Magazine, 1834
It is often easier as well as more advantageous to conform ourselves to other men's opinions than to bring them over to ours.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Society and of Conversation", Les Caractères
The tiniest bits of opinion sown in the minds of children in private life afterwards issue forth to the world, and become its public opinion; for nations are gathered out of nurseries.
SAMUEL SMILES
Character
Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Life Thoughts
The presumption that any current opinion is not wholly false, gains in strength according to the number of its adherents.
HERBERT SPENCER
First Principles