Public Opinion Quotes - Page 16

• Persistently leavening public opinion, in a grossly superstitious age, with the theological doctrine of popular preachers, that woman is a sex of superior wickedness and inferior mentality, could have but one general result throughout Christendom.

  Ellen Battelle Dietrick

  Sex, Atheism, Age

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• It is odd that neither the Church nor modern public opinion condemns petting, provided it stops short at a certain point. At what point sin begins is a matter as to which casuists differ. One eminently orthodox Catholic divine laid it down that a confessor may fondle a nun's breasts, provided he does it without evil intent. But I doubt whether modern authorities would agree with him on this point.

  Bertrand Russell

  Evil, Catholic, Doubt

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.77, Routledge

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• Arab public opinion does not regard Iran as a hostile entity. In fact it's so supportive of Iran that a majority would think the place would be better off if Iran had nuclear weapons. The main enemies are the United States and Isreal, in the 80, 90 percent range.

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, Iran, Enemy

  Source: brightestyoungthings.com

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• The tyranny of public opinion (and what an opinion!) is as fatuous in the small towns of France as it is in the United States of America.

  Stendhal

  America, United States, Peer Pressure

  Stendhal (2006). “The Red and the Black”, p.9, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• There is very little real liberty in the world; even those who seem freest are often the most tightly bound. Law, custom, public opinion, fear or shame make slaves of us all, as you will find when you try your experiment.

  Louisa May Alcott

  Real, Law, Trying

  "A Long Fatal Love Chase".

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• The clearer and deeper the public opinion of the world, in the first instance the opinion of the working masses, will understand the contradictions and the difficulties of the socialist development of an isolated country, the higher will it appreciate the results achieved. The less it identifies the fundamental methods of Socialism with the zigzags and errors of the Soviet bureaucracy, the less will be the danger that, by the inevitable revelation of these errors and of their consequences, the authority, not only of the present ruling group, but of the workers' State itself, may decline.

  Leon Trotsky

  Country, Errors, Appreciate

  Source: www.marxists.org

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• Statutes are mere milestone, telling how far yesterday's thought had traveled; and the talk of the sidewalk today is the law of the land. With us, law in nothing unless close behind it stands a warm, living public opinion.

  Wendell Phillips

  Law, Land, Yesterday

  Wendell Phillips (1864). “Speeches, Lectures, and Letters”, p.264

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• When I talk about the polling, I'm talking about the principles. It shows these officials are knowingly attempting to shift public opinion, even though they know what they say is not factual.

  Edward Snowden

  Talking, Principles, Attempting

  Source: www.thenation.com

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• The only remaining superpower is international public opinion.

  Simon Anholt

  Opinion, International, Superpower

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• Observance of customs and laws can very easily be a cloak for a lie so subtle that our fellow human beings are unable to detect it. It may help us to escape all criticism, we may even be able to deceive ourselves in the belief of our obvious righteousness. But 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 by the moral code.

  Carl Jung

  Lying, Men, Law

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• To be independent of public opinion is the first formal condition of achieving anything great.

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

  Success, Creativity, Independent

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1945). “Hegel's Philosophy of right”

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• Was Mrs. Wilcox one of the unsatisfactory people- there are many of them- who dangle intimacy and then withdraw it? They evoke our interests and affections, and keep the life of the spirit dawdling around them. Then they withdraw. When physical passion is involved, there is a definite name for such behaviour- flirting- and if carried far enough, it is punishable by law. But no law- not public opinion, even- punishes those who coquette with friendship, though the dull ache that they inflict, the sense of misdirected effort and exhaustion, may be as intolerable. Was she one of these?

  E. M. Forster

  Passion, Flirting, Law

  E. M. Forster (2013). “Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)”, p.585, Delphi Classics

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• Public opinion, in its raw state, gushes out in the immemorial form of the mob's fear. It is piped into central factories, and there it is flavoured and colored and put into cans.

  H. L. Mencken

  Factories, States, Form

  "Notes on Democracy". Book by H. L. Mencken, 1926.

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• The Russians are bent on world dominance, and they are rapidly acquiring the means to become the most powerful imperial nation the world has seen. The men in the Soviet Politburo do not have to worry about the ebb and flow of public opinion. They put guns before butter, while we put just about everything before guns.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Powerful, Mean, Gun

  Margaret Thatcher (1997). “The collected speeches of Margaret Thatcher”, HarperCollins

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• We in the House of Lords are never in touch with public opinion. That makes us a civilised body.

  Oscar Wilde

  House, Body, Lord

  Oscar Wilde (1997). “Collected Works of Oscar Wilde: The Plays, the Poems, the Stories and the Essays Including De Profundis”, p.543, Wordsworth Editions

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• There's a big gap between public opinion polls and the vote in Washington, in Congress. The majority consciousness has changed, and often that has made very clear, practical changes in our daily lives, but the centers of power are still not occupied, for the most part, by this new consciousness.

  Gloria Steinem

  Majority, Gaps, Vote

  Source: collider.com

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• Unless you can point to something that I have done or said that has changed the course of the public opinion in a negative way, you've got to check yourself sometimes and say, "Maybe I don't like the way that this thing is said, but it's expanding tolerance." If I said something that was shutting down something that was positive, call me out, but I don't really see me doing that.

  Lizz Winstead

  Tolerance, Negative, Shutting Down

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I think history has shown that the worst way to [try to] bring people over and actually change public opinion is by insult and applied degradation of them.

  E. O. Wilson

  Thinking, People, Trying

  Source: blog.cleveland.com

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• Our liberty depends on our education, our laws, and habits . . . it is founded on morals and religion, whose authority reigns in the heart, and on the influence all these produce on public opinion before that opinion governs rulers.

  Fisher Ames

  Heart, Law, Liberty

  Fisher Ames (1835). “The influences of democracy on liberty, property, and the happiness of society, considered”, p.138

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• Private opinion creates public opinion. Public opinion overflows eventually into national behavior as things are arranged at present, can make or mar the world. That is why private opinion, and private behavior, and private conversation are so terrifyingly important.

  Jan Struther

  Important, Mars, World

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• Promote then as an object of primary importance, Institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.

  George Washington

  Education, Government, Giving

  George Washington (1852). “The life of General Washington: first president of the United States”, p.331

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• To attach no importance to public opinion, is a proof that you do not merit its suffrage.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Merit, Proof, Importance

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• It will not be enough to rely on experts. Ordinary citizens must become experts too. It will take public opinion on a wide scale to ensure that world leaders act.

  Mikhail Gorbachev

  Communication, Leader, Ordinary

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• This formidable censor of the public functionaries [the press], by arraigning them at the tribunal of public opinion, produces reform peaceably, which must otherwise be done by revolution. It is also the best instrument for enlightening the mind of man and improving him as a rational, moral, and social being.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Mind, Reform

  Thomas Jefferson, H. A. Washington (2011). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private”, p.324, Cambridge University Press

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• Increasingly, our leaders must deal with dangers that threaten the entire world, where an understanding of those dangers and the possible solutions depends on a good grasp of science. The ozone layer, the greenhouse effect, acid rain, questions of diet and heredity. All require scientific literacy. Can Americans choose the proper leaders and support the proper programs if they themselves are scientifically illiterate? The whole premise of democracy is that it is safe to leave important questions to the court of public opinion - but is it safe to leave them to the court of public ignorance?

  Isaac Asimov

  Rain, Ignorance, Science

  "Combatting U.S. Scientific Illiteracy" by Isaac Asimov, articles.latimes.com. March 31, 1989.

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