Public Opinion Quotes - Page 4

• Public opinion shapes our destinies and guides the progress of human affairs.

  Frank B. Kellogg

  Destiny, Progress, Shapes

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• 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.

  Barack Obama

  Battle, Campaigns, Able

  Source: www.cbsnews.com

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• The two terrors that discourage creativity and creative living are fear of public opinion and undue reverence for one's own consistency.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Creativity, Two, Creative

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• Public opinion reigns in society because stupidity reigns amongst the stupid.

  Nicolas Chamfort

  Stupid, Reign, Stupidity

  "Chamfort: Reflections on Life, Love & Society: Together with Anecdotes and Little Philosophical Dialogues".

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• We all do no end of feeling, and we mistake it for thinking. And out of it we get an aggregation which we consider a boon. Its name is public opinion. It is held in reverence. Some think it the voice of God.

  Mark Twain

  Mistake, Thinking, Names

  Mark Twain (1994). “Tales, Speeches, Essays, and Sketches”, p.272, Penguin

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• I believe that the position of the friends of peace is strengthening. The friends of peace are able to work in the open. They base themselves upon the force of public opinion. They have at their disposal such instruments as, for instance, the League of Nations. This is to the advantage of the friends of peace.

  Joseph Stalin

  Believe, League, Able

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• Public opinion is a second conscience.

  William Rounseville Alger

  Second Chance, Opinion, Conscience

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• Laws that do not embody public opinion can never be enforced.

  Elbert Hubbard

  Law, Opinion

  Elbert Hubbard, Bert Hubbard (1923). “Selected writings of Elbert Hubbard: his mintage of wisdom, coined from a life of love, laughter and work”

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• Sycophancy toward those who hold power is a fact in every regime, and especially in a democracy, where, unlike tyranny, there is an accepted principle of legitimacy that breaks the inner will to resist.... Flattery of the people and incapacity to resist public opinion are the democratic vices, particularly among writers, artists, journalists and anyone else who is dependent on an audience.

  Allan Bloom

  Artist, People, Democracy

  Allan Bloom (2008). “Closing of the American Mind”, p.249, Simon and Schuster

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• Leaders are responsible not for running public opinion polls but for the consequences of their actions.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Running, Romance, Leader

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• I think that the legitimacy of the court would be undermined in any case if the court made a decision based on its perception of public opinion.

  Samuel Alito

  Thinking, Decision, Perception

  U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Judge Samuel Alito's Nomination to the Supreme Court, www.washingtonpost.com. January 10, 2006.

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• The people have only a very vague direct power. They have the power of voting against the administration, again after its decisions have been taken; but they have no way of getting into the question of policy-making, decision-making, except insofar as the vague forces and pressures of public debate and public opinion have their impact on the President. The President still has to decide. He can't go to the people and ask them to decide for him; he has to make the decision. In that sense he was condemned to be a dictator.

  Walter Millis

  Taken, Impact, Policy Making

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• Mob law is the most forcible expression of an abnormal public opinion; it shows that society is rotten to the core.

  Timothy Thomas Fortune

  Expression, Law, Rotten

  Timothy Thomas Fortune, Seth Moglen (2007). “Black and White: Land, Labor, and Politics in the South”, Simon and Schuster

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• To straddle the middle ground and win elections, we have to be in charge of the political agenda. This can only be done by not being beaten in the argument with our critics. They complain that I come down too hard on their arguments. But wrong ideas have to be challenged before they influence public opinion and make for problems. Those who try to be clever at the expense of the government should not complain if my replies are as sharp as their criticisms.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Clever, Winning, Government

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• The power of an aroused public is unbeatable.

  Helen Caldicott

  Inspirational, Unbeatable, Enviromental

  Helen Caldicott, Nancy Herrington, Nahum Stiskin (1982). “Nuclear madness: what you can do! : with a new chapter on Three Mile Island”, Bantam

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• We were determined by public opinions of us. Would we think we existed without outside confirmation? And how long would we live apart from others before we began to doubt our existence?

  Doris Grumbach

  Thinking, Long, Doubt

  Doris Grumbach (2014). “Fifty Days of Solitude: A Memoir”, p.12, Open Road Media

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• Politicians have responsibility to act if the public opinion changes.

  David Titley

  Responsibility, Politician, Ifs

  Source: www.slate.com

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• But being in the closet uniquely assisted me in politics. From my first run for the state legislature until my election as governor, all too often I was not leading but following my best guess at public opinion.

  James McGreevey

  Running, Firsts, Election

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• The [Nazi party] should not become a constable of public opinion, but must dominate it. It must not become a servant of the masses, but their master!

  Adolf Hitler

  Military, Party, Democracy

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• There is nothing in the world that could make me turn from the law. With a clear conscience, I am prepared to answer for each and every one of my political and administrative orders and actions, and to do so before the court of public opinion.

  Djemal Pasha

  Order, Law, Political

  "A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility". Book by by Taner Akçam, Paul Bessemer, p. 246, 2006.

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• Public opinion: May it always perform one of its appropriate offices, by teaching the public functionaries of the State and of the Federal Government, that neither shall assume the exercise of powers entrusted by the Constitution to the other.

  James K. Polk

  Teaching, Exercise, Government

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• For nearly five years the present Ministers have harassed every trade, worried every profession, and assailed or menaced every class, institution, and species of property in the country. Occasionally they have varied this state of civil warfare by perpetrating some job which outraged public opinion, or by stumbling into mistakes which have been always discreditable, and sometimes ruinous. All this they call a policy, and seem quite proud of it; but the country has, I think, made up its mind to close this career of plundering and blundering.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Country, Jobs, War

  Benjamin Disraeli's letter to Lord Grey de Wilton, October 3, 1873.

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• What concerns all, should be considered by all; and individuals may injure a whole society, by not declaring their sentiments. It is therefore not only their right, but their duty, to declare them.

  John Dickinson

  May, Individual, Should

  John Dickinson (1801). “The Political Writings of John Dickinson, Esquire: Late President of the State of Delaware, and of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania”, p.72

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• Hitherto my observations have only aimed at a vindication of the provision in question, on the ground of theoretic propriety . . . . But there remains to be mentioned a positive advantage . . . I allude to the circumstance of uniformity in the time of elections for the House of Representatives. It is more than possible, that this uniformity may be found by experience to be of great importance to the public welfare; both as a security against the perpetuation of the same spirit in the body; and as a cure for the diseases of faction.

  Alexander Hamilton

  House, Body, May

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• If you look at the public opinion polls even, support for all the issues, people who self-identify as feminists are as least as many as those who self-identify as Republicans.

  Gloria Steinem

  Self, Issues, People

  Source: bluestockingsmag.com

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