Public Opinion Quotes - Page 11

• Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise. Once and again one of those great influences which we call a Cause arises in the midst of a nation. Men of strenuous minds and high ideals come forward.... The attacks they sustain are more cruel than the collision of arms.... Friends desert and despise them.... They stand alone and oftentimes are made bitter by their isolation.... They are doing nothing less than defy public opinion, and shall they convert it by blows. Yes.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Leadership, Men, Blow

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• O heart, be at peace, because
  Nor knave nor dolt can break
  What's not for their applause,
  Being for a woman's sake.

  William Butler Yeats

  Heart, Poetry, Sake

  William Butler Yeats (2011). “Selected Poems And Four Plays”, p.33, Simon and Schuster

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• The art of manipulating public opinion, which is a necessary art for the democratic politician, and, like other arts, is sometimespractised with greater virtuosity by knaves than by honest men (who are apt to disdain it), has a different technique in different countries. For instance, in England we excel in whitewashing: in America they excel in tarring and feathering. We strain our nerves and stretch our consciences to avoid a scandal: Americans do the same to make one.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Country, Art, Men

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• I am particularly interested in the indications that the people seem to understand and approve the necessity of pursuing the course that will prevent a further effort on the part of the German peoples to continue the struggle for world domination, even though they are thoroughly beaten in this war.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  War, Struggle, People

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• There are only two forces that can withstand the force of the war's spirit when it seizes upon the world. The one is the force of an independently thinking, free, and articulate democracy. The other is the force of an instructed and enlightened public opinion.

  Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence

  Peace, War, Thinking

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• No serious sociologist any longer believes that the voice of the people expresses any divine or specially wise and lofty idea. The voice of the people expresses the mind of the people, and that mind is made up for it by the group leaders in whom it believes and by those persons who understand the manipulation of public opinion. It is composed of inherited prejudices and symbols and clichés and verbal formulas supplied to them by the leaders.

  Edward Bernays

  Wise, Believe, Ideas

  "Propaganda". Book by Edward Bernays, 1928.

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• The artist is chosen by God to fulfill his commands and must never be overwhelmed by public opinion.

  Albrecht Durer

  Artist, Overwhelmed, Command

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• Civilization can only revive when there shall come into being in a number of individuals a new tone of mind independent of the one prevalent among the crowd and in opposition to it. A new public opinion must be created privately and unobtrusively. The existing one is maintained by the press, by propaganda, by organization, and by financial influences which are at its disposal. The unnatural way of spreading ideas must be opposed by the natural one, which goes from man to man and relies solely on the truth of the thoughts and the hearer's receptiveness of new truth.

  Albert Schweitzer

  Independent, Men, Organization

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• In America, public opinion is the leader

  Frances Perkins

  America, Leader, Opinion

  Frances Perkins (1934). “People at work”

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• Thee might observe incidentally that if the state paid for child-bearing it might and ought to require a medical certificate that the parents were such as to give a reasonable result of a healthy child -- this would afford a very good inducement to some sort of care for the race, and gradually as public opinion became educated by the law, it might react on the law and make that more stringent, until one got to some state of things in which there would be a little genuine care for the race, instead of the present haphazard higgledy-piggledy ways.

  Bertrand Russell

  Children, Race, Law

  Bertrand Russell, Nicholas Griffin (2002). “The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Private Years, 1884-1914”, p.125, Psychology Press

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• Englishmen never will be slaves; they are free to do whatever the government and public opinion allow them.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Government, Insulting, England

  'Man and Superman' (1903) act 3

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• The temptation to be popular may prioritize public opinion above the word of God. Political campaigns and marketing strategies widely employ public opinion polls to shape their plans. Results of those polls are informative. But they could hardly be used as grounds to justify disobedience to God’s commandments!

  Russell M. Nelson

  Political, Temptation, Marketing

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• Women have one great advantage over men. It is commonly thought that if they marry they have done enough, and need career no further. If a man marries, on the other hand, public opinion is all against him if he takes this view.

  Rose Macaulay

  Relationship, Men, Hands

  Rose Macaulay (1926). “A Casual Commentary”

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• It is on great occasions only, and after time has been given for cool and deliberate reflection, that the real voice of the people can be known.

  George Washington

  Real, Reflection, Voice

  George Washington, Jared Sparks (1838). “The writings of George Washington”, p.122

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• A little matter will move a party, but it must be something great that moves a nation.

  Thomas Paine

  Party, Moving, Greatness

  Thomas Paine (1852). “The Rights of Man: With a Brief Historical Preface”, p.98

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• When a large number of organs of the press come to advance along the same track, their influence becomes almost irresistible in the long term, and public opinion, struck always from the same side, ends by yielding under their blows.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Blow, Numbers, Long

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2012). “Democracy in America”, p.178, University of Chicago Press

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• The truth is, that, even with the most secure tenure of office, during good behavior, the danger is not, that the judges will be too firm in resisting public opinion, and in defence of private rights or public liberties; but, that they will be ready to yield themselves to the passions, and politics, and prejudices of the day.

  Joseph Story

  Passion, Yield, Rights

  Joseph Story (1858). “Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: with a preliminary review of the constitutional history of the colonies and states, before the adoption of the Constitution”, p.464

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• For the superior morality, of which we hear so much, we too would desire to be thankful: at the same time, it were but blindness to deny that this superior morality is properly rather an inferior criminality, produced not by greater love of Virtue, but by greater perfection of Police; and of that far subtler and stronger Police, called Public Opinion.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Love, Perfection, Being Thankful

  Thomas Carlyle, G. B. Tennyson (1984). “Carlyle Reader”, p.50, CUP Archive

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• I do not regret having braved public opinion, when I knew it was wrong and was sure it would be merciless.

  Horace Greeley

  Regret, Would Be, Opinion

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• Public opinion alone can keep a society pure and healthy.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Struggle, Healthy, Debate

  Mahatma Gandhi (1967). “The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi”, p.353, Rajpal & Sons

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• At any given moment, public opinion is a chaos of superstition, misinformation, and prejudice.

  Gore Vidal

  Prejudice, Superstitions, Chaos

  Gore Vidal (1969). “Reflections Upon a Sinking Ship. (1. Ed.)”, Boston : Little, Brown

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• 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. Wilson

  Rights, Support, Gone

  "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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• I had grown tired of standing in the lean and lonely front line facing the greatest enemy that ever confronted man -- public opinion.

  Clarence Darrow

  Lonely, Tired, Men

  Clarence Darrow (2015). “The Story of My Life”, p.233, Lulu.com

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• There is no use in deceiving ourselves. American public opinion rejects the market economy, the capitalistic free enterprise system that provided the nation with the highest standard of living ever attained. Full government control of all activities of the individual is virtually the goal of both national parties.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Party, Government, Goal

  Ludwig Von Mises (1990). “Economic freedom and interventionism: an anthology of articles and essays”

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• It is a mournful fact that most men, and indeed all men of worldly character, have so much regard to public opinion that they dare not act according to the dictates of their consciences when acting thus would incur the popular frown.

  Charles Grandison Finney

  Character, Men, Acting

  Charles Grandison Finney, George REDFORD (D.D.) (1851). “Lectures on systematic theology, embracing moral government, the atonement, etc. Revised, enlarged, and partly re-written by the Author ... Edited ... by G. Redford”, p.455

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