Public Opinion Quotes - Page 13

• I get to hear the really good or the really bad things in the press, but I don't read it. I can afford to say that because public opinion does not drive U2's audience.

  Bono

  Doe, Audience, Bad Things

  "Bono: 'There's a difference between cosying up to power and being close to power'". Interview with Tim Adams, www.theguardian.com. September 21, 2013.

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• It is precisely the purpose of the public opinion generated by the press to make the public incapable of judging, to insinuate into it the attitude of someone irresponsible, uninformed.

  Walter Benjamin

  Attitude, Media, Judging

  Walter Benjamin (1996). “Selected Writings: 1927-1934”, p.433, Harvard University Press

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• I believe if a private citizen is able to affect public opinion in a constructive way, he doesn't have to be an elected public servant to perform a public service.

  Warren Beatty

  Believe, House, Citizens

  "Senator Bulworth vs. the Terminator" by Bill Schneider, www.cnn.com. September 23, 2005.

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• As the senior commander in Vietnam, I was aware of the potency of public opinion - and I worried about it.

  William Westmoreland

  Senior, Vietnam, Worried

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• The decentralized nature of online conversations often makes it easier to manipulate public opinion, both domestically and globally. Regimes that once relied on centralized systems of media control can now deliver ideological messages more subtly, with the help of little-known intermediaries like anonymous commenters on websites.

  Evgeny Morozov

  Media, Littles, Messages

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• An identity based in the one-way love of God does not take into account public opinion or, thankfully, even personal opinion.

  Tullian Tchividjian

  Personal Opinions, Identity, Doe

  Tullian Tchividjian (2013). “One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace for an Exhausted World”, p.146, David C Cook

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• They are lying every day. They are lying always, and mainly they are lying to their public opinion

  Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

  Funny, Military, Lying

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• It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion.

  Joseph Goebbels

  School, Political, Politics

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• 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.

  Albert Einstein

  Peace, War, Ends

  Albert Einstein (2010). “Ideas And Opinions”, p.111, Broadway Books

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• When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognised. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before.

  John D. Rockefeller

  Drinking, Believe, Wine

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• The vested interests-if we explain the situation by their influence-can only get the public to act as they wish by manipulating public opinion, by playing either upon the public's indifference, confusions, prejudices, pugnacities or fears. And the only way in which the power of the interests can be undermined and their maneuvers defeated is by bringing home to the public the danger of its indifference, the absurdity of its prejudices, or the hollowness of its fears; by showing that it is indifferent to danger where real danger exists; frightened by dangers which are nonexistent.

  Norman Angell

  Real, Hate, Home

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• The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep he waters pure.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Water, Agitation, Produce

  Letter to Marquis de Lafayette, 4 Nov. 1823

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• Public opinion rarely considers the needs of the next generation or the history of the last. It is frequently hampered by myths and misinformation, by stereotypes and shibboleths, and by an inate resistance to innovation.

  Theodore C. Sorensen

  Humility, Innovation, Needs

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• Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and bruised itself. We have been enjoined by the courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, traduced by the press, frowned upon in public opinion, and deceived by politicians. 'But notwithstanding all this and all these, labor is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Thug, Labour Movement, Political

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• The big powers are traveling on the dangerous road of armament. The signpost just ahead of us is 'Oblivion.' Can the march on this road be stopped? Yes, if public opinion uses the power it now has.

  Sean MacBride

  Peace, Use, March

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• You beg for happiness in life, but security is more important to you, even if it costs you your spine or your life. Your life will be good and secure when aliveness will mean more to you than security; love more than money; your freedom more than party line or public opinion; when your thinking will be in harmony with your feelings; when the teachers of your children will be better paid than the politicians; when you will have more respect for the love between man and woman than for a marriage license.

  Wilhelm Reich

  Life, Teacher, Children

  "Listen, Little Man!". Book by Wilhelm Reich, 1948.

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• Public opinion is always more tyrannical towards those who obviously fear it than towards those who feel indifferent to it.

  Bertrand Russell

  Happiness, Indifferent, Feels

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.75, Lulu Press, Inc

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• The relative freedom which we enjoy depends of public opinion. The law is no protection. Governments make laws, but whether they are carried out, and how the police behave, depends on the general temper in the country. If large numbers of people are interested in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it; if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them.

  George Orwell

  Country, Freedom, Law

  George Orwell (2016). “Fifty Essays (George Orwell) (Literary Thoughts Edition)”, p.501, epubli

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• And the American people should be made aware of the trend toward the monopolization of the great public information vehicles and the concentration of more and more power in fewer and fewer hands.

  Spiro T. Agnew

  Power, Hands, People

  "The Impudent Snobs: Agnew Vs. the Intellectual Establishment".

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• Deep down, below the surface of the average man's conscience, he hears a voice whispering, "There is something not right," no matter how much his rightness is supported by public opinion or moral code.

  Carl Jung

  Men, Average, Voice

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• The possibility of my presidential candidacy emerged spontaneously in public opinion polls. For my part, I noticed people's affection when I was doing work on the ground. I think the important thing is that my candidacy was born from citizens themselves, driven by the people and which the parties picked up favourably.

  Michelle Bachelet

  Party, Thinking, People

  "Michelle, top woman in a macho world". Interview with Diane Dixon, www.theguardian.com. April 2, 2006.

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• Ready made opinions can be distributed day by day through the press, radio, and so on, again and again, till they reach the nerve cell and implant a fixed pattern in the brain. Consequently, guided public opinion is the result, according to Pavlovian theoreticians, of good propaganda technique, and the polls [are] a verification of the temporary successful action of the Pavlovian machinations on the mind.

  Joost Meerloo

  Successful, Cells, Brain

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• Absolute truth is not dependent upon public opinion or popularity. Now what is this truth? It is His gospel. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

  Dieter F. Uchtdorf

  Jesus, Christ, Truth Is

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• About things on which the public thinks long it commonly attains to think right.

  Samuel Johnson

  Thinking, Long, Opinion

  'The Lives of the English Poets' (1779-81) 'Addison'

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• According to the experience of all but the most accomplished jugglers, it is easier to keep one ball in the air than many.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Air, Balls, Easier

  John Kenneth Galbraith (2015). “The New Industrial State”, p.493, Princeton University Press

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