Public Opinion Quotes - Page 3

• For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Sad, Politics, Aliens

  Mahatma Gandhi (1947). “Teachings of Mahatma Gandhi”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Public opinion, though often formed upon a wrong basis, yet generally has a strong underlying sense of justice.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Strong, Justice, Bases

  8 Copy quote

• I believe that in the end the abolition of war, the maintenance of world peace, the adjustment of international questions by pacific means will come through the force of public opinion, which controls nations and peoples.

  Frank B. Kellogg

  War, Believe, Mean

  9 Copy quote

• Government, in the last analysis, is organized opinion. Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad government.

  William Lyon Mackenzie King

  Government, Analysis, Littles

  "The message of the carillon: and other addresses". Book by William Lyon Mackenzie King, 1927.

  43 Copy quote

  Show source

• Publicity is a great purifier because it sets in action the forces of public opinion, and in this country public opinion controls the courses of the nation

  Charles Evans Hughes

  Country, Publicity, Action

  22 Copy quote

• Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Education, Patriotic, Free Opinion

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1801

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government, practically just so much.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Freedom, Government, Opinion

  Abraham Lincoln (2008). “The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln”, p.385, Wildside Press LLC

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The newspaper that obstructs the law on a trivial pretext, for money's sake, is a dangerous enemy to the public weal. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse.

  Mark Twain

  Self, Media, America

  Mark Twain (2000). “Mark Twain: Plymouth Rock and the Pilgrims and Other Speeches”, Cooper Square Pub

  519 Copy quote

  Show source

• Public opinion can be influential, the media can be influential.

  Noam Chomsky

  Media, Opinion, Influential

  7 Copy quote

• The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in its milk, on the principle that it is cheaper to do this than to keep a cow. So it is, but the milk is more likely to be watered.

  Samuel Butler

  Meat, Principles, Cows

  'Notebooks' (1912) ch. 17

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The private citizen, beset by partisan appeals for the loan of his Public Opinion, will soon see, perhaps, that these appeals are not a compliment to his intelligence, but an imposition on his good nature and an insult to his sense of evidence.

  Walter Lippmann

  Citizens, Comeback, Insult

  Walter Lippmann (2007). “Public Opinion”, p.368, Filiquarian Publishing, LLC.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• One cannot wage war under present conditions without the support of public opinion, which is tremendously molded by the press and other forms of propaganda.

  Douglas MacArthur

  Military, War, Support

  24 Copy quote

• 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?

  Thomas Carlyle

  Wind, Degrees, Influence

  Thomas Carlyle (1855). “Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: By Thomas Carlyle”, p.195

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Public opinion wins wars.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  War, Winning, Opinion

  "Why the reporter is the last bastion of truth" by Jon Swain, www.theguardian.com. March 15, 2003.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nothing is more unjust or capricious than public opinion.

  William Hazlitt

  Unjust, Opinion, Capricious

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1476, Delphi Classics

  26 Copy quote

  Show source

• I wonder how far Moses would have gone if he had taken a poll in Egypt? What would Jesus Christ have preached if He had taken a poll in the land of Israel? Where would the Reformation have gone if Martin Luther had taken a poll? It isn't polls or public opinion alone of the moment that counts.

  Harry S. Truman

  Leadership, Jesus, Taken

  "Harry S. Truman in his own words: by William Hillman; pictures by Alfred Wagg".

  83 Copy quote

  Show source

• American public opinion is like an ocean, it cannot be stirred by a teaspoon.

  Hubert H. Humphrey

  Ocean, Opinion, Teaspoons

  7 Copy quote

• Somewhere "out there," beyond the walls of the courthouse, run currents and tides of public opinion which lap at the courtroom door.

  William Rehnquist

  Running, Wall, Doors

  Address at Suffolk University Law School; quoted in "The New York Times", April 17, 1986.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Public opinion is stronger than the legislature, and nearly as strong as the ten commandments.

  Charles Dudley Warner

  Strong, Legislature, Ten Commandments

  Charles Dudley Warner (2006). “My Summer in a Garden: Easyread Large Edition”, p.108, ReadHowYouWant.com

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Public opinion, a vulgar, impertinent, anonymous tyrant who deliberately makes life unpleasant for anyone who is not content to the average person.

  William Ralph Inge

  Average, Tyrants, Vulgar

  Outspoken Essays Our Present Discontents (p. 9)

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• A man must know how to fly in the face of opinion; a woman to submit to it.

  Madame de Stael

  Men, Faces, Submit

  "Delphine". Book by Madame de Stael, 1802.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• In the modern world the intelligence of public opinion is the one indispensable condition for social progress.

  Charles William Eliot

  Progress, World, Modern

  5 Copy quote

• Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Confidence, Tyrants, Anxiety

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.8, Xist Publishing

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is the folly of too many to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of the kingdom.

  Jonathan Swift

  Mistake, Coffee, Echoes

  Jonathan Swift, Sir Walter Scott (1824). “-5. Tracts, historical and political, during the reign of Queen Anne”, p.365

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• We live in a society obsessed with public opinion. But leadership has never been about popularity.

  Marco Rubio

  Leadership, Vision, Popularity

  37 Copy quote