OPINION QUOTES VII

quotations about opinion

We should never wed an opinion for better or for worse; what we take upon good grounds, we should lay down upon better.

JONATHAN SWIFT

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: Jonathan Swift


If I hold my own opinion to be absolute truth, my own judgment to be the only measure of truth, I constitute myself God.

SABINE BARING-GOULD

The Origin and Development of Religious Belief: Christianity

Tags: truth


If the man succeeds in becoming indifferent to the opinions of his neighbors he runs into another danger, that of a distorted and extravagant self of the pride sort, since by the very process of gaining independence and immunity from the stings of depreciation and misunderstanding, he has perhaps lost that wholesome deference to some social tribunal that a man cannot dispense with and remain quite sane.

CHARLES HORTON COOLEY

Human Nature and the Social Order

Tags: Charles Horton Cooley


Opinions, like weapons, are often made for defense as well as offense.

EDWARD COUNSEL

Maxims

Tags: Edward Counsel


We want at least a modicum of intellectual honesty, and the man who shuffles his opinions in order to match ours is seen through quickly. We want none of him.

ELBERT HUBBARD

The American Bible

Tags: Elbert Hubbard


No feats of heroism are needed to achieve the greatest and most important changes in the existence of humanity; neither the armament of millions of soldiers, nor the construction of new roads and machines, nor the arrangement of exhibitions, nor the organization of workmen's unions, nor revolutions, nor barricades, nor explosions, nor the perfection of aerial navigation; but a change in public opinion.

LEO TOLSTOY

Patriotism and Christianity

Tags: Leo Tolstoy


Let every one be persuaded in his own mind, is the injunction. By these remarks, I mean not, that one man shall treat those with contempt or indifference, who differ with him in opinion--but the reverse--they should be respected because they have an independence of mind, without which man is a mere automaton.

LEVI CARROLL JUDSON

The Moral Probe: Or, One Hundred and Two Essays on the Nature of Men and Things


It were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse races.

MARK TWAIN

The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson

Tags: Mark Twain


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

Keystones of Thought

Tags: Austin O'Malley


Opinion is a capricious tyrant to which many a freeborn man willingly binds himself a slave.

HORACE SMITH

attributed, Day's Collacon


Remember that all is opinion.

MARCUS AURELIUS

Meditations

Tags: Marcus Aurelius


Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Emerson in His Journals

Tags: Ralph Waldo Emerson


The more unpopular an opinion is, the more necessary is it that the holder should be somewhat punctilious in his observance of conventionalities generally, and that, if possible, he should get the reputation of being well-to-do in the world.

SAMUEL BUTLER

Notebooks


I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

letter to Francis Hopkinson, March 13, 1789

Tags: Thomas Jefferson


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

Tags: George Eliot


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

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Pretend what we may, the whole man within us is at work when we form our philosophical opinions. Intellect, will, taste, and passion co-operate just as they do in practical affairs; and lucky it is if the passion be not something as petty as a love of personal conquest over the philosopher across the way.

WILLIAM JAMES

The Sentiment of Rationality

Tags: William James


The joy a person is usually seen to express at the conversion of another to his opinion is seldom more than the impulse of egotistical satisfaction at being considered worthy of didactic imitation.

NORMAN MACDONALD

Maxims and Moral Reflections

Tags: Norman MacDonald


It's as simple as this. When people don't unload their opinions and feel like they've been listened to, they won't really get on board.

PATRICK LENCIONI

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team


All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated, and well-supported in logic and argument than others.

DOUGLAS ADAMS

American Atheist Magazine, winter 1998-1999

Tags: Douglas Adams