Public Opinion quotes
210 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside public opinion — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"Wonderful Force of Public Opinion! We must act and walk in all points as it prescribes; follow the traffic it bids us, realize the sum of money, the degree of influence it expects of us, or we shall be lightly esteemed; certain mouthfuls of articulate wind will be blown at us, and this what mortal courage can front?"
"There's a tremendous gap between public opinion and public policy."
"Laws that do not embody public opinion can never be enforced."
"Public opinion is the judgment of the incapable many opposed to that of the discerning few."
"In the modern world the intelligence of public opinion is the one indispensable condition for social progress."
"There is no group in America that can withstand the force of an aroused public opinion."
"We were very effective, and I was very effective, in shaping public opinion around my campaigns. But there were big stretches, while governing, where even though we were doing the right thing, we weren't able to mobilize public opinion firmly enough behind us to weaken the resolve of the Republicans to stop opposing us or to cooperate with us. And there were times during my presidency where I lost the PR battle."
"No policy that does not rest upon some philosophical public opinion can be permanently maintained."
"Public opinion wins wars."
"I do not believe any of the statistical claims that are made about public opinion. I don't see why anybody does."
"It seems clear to me that marriage ought to be constituted by children, and relations not involving children ought to be ignored by the law and treated as indifferent by public opinion. It is only through children that relations cease to be a purely private matter."
"Neither the Church nor modern public opinion condemns petting, provided it stops short at a certain point."
"Those who have an interest in keeping the machinery of war going will stop at nothing to make public opinion subservient to their murderous ends."
"What we need are not prohibitory marriage laws, but a reformed society, an educated public opinion which will teach individual duty in these matters"
"Thea was still under the belief that public opinion could be placated; that if you clucked often enough, the hens would mistake you for one of themselves."
"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."
"Public opinion, I am sorry to say, will bear a great deal of nonsense. There is scarcely any absurdity so gross, whether in religion, politics, science or manners, which it will not bear."
"Happy is he who looks only into his work to know if it will succeed, never into the times or the public opinion; and who writes from the love of imparting certain thoughts and not from the necessity of sale - who writes always to the unknown friend."
"Painting is a faith and that it brings with it the duty to pay no heed to public opinion - and that in it one conquers by perseverance and not by giving in."
"About things on which the public thinks long it commonly attains to think right."
