quotations about opinion
Your opinion is your opinion, your perception is your perception--do not confuse them with "facts" or "truth". Wars have been fought and millions have been killed because of the inability of men to understand the idea that EVERYBODY has a different viewpoint.
JOHN MOORE
Quotations for Martial Artists
The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.
MARK TWAIN
Christian Science
The truth is many more men pay regard to the opinion of the world than to conscience.
PLINY
attributed, Day's Collacon
There is nothing that makes more cowards and feeble men than public opinion.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
General opinion is no proof of truth, for the generality of men are ignorant.
ROBERT DODSLEY
The Economy of Human Life
Ten gods cannot change the opinion of one fool, especially if another fool agrees with him.
ABRAHAM MILLER
Unmoral Maxims
Studies show that when we vocalize an opinion, whether or not we believe it to be true, in time we usually come to support it.
DAVID J. LIEBERMAN
How to Change Anybody
There is nothing in the world so easy as giving an opinion; consequently, in general, there are few things so utterly valueless.
CHARLES WILLIAM DAY
The Maxims, Experiences, and Observations of Agogos
The first opinion that occurs to us when we are suddenly asked about a matter is usually not our own, but only the customary one, appropriate to our caste, position, or parentage; our own opinions seldom swim near the surface.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Human, All Too Human
If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.
JOHN STUART MILL
On Liberty
The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"A Memorable Fancy"
Few men think; yet all have opinions.
GEORGE BERKELEY
Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous
Opinions are to the vast apparatus of social existence what oil is to machines: one does not go up to a turbine and pour machine oil over it; one applies a little to hidden spindles and joints that one has to know.
WALTER BENJAMIN
Reflections
Don't be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.
STEVE JOBS
Commencement address at Stanford University, June 12, 2005
The kind of man who always thinks that he is right, that his opinions, his pronouncements, are the final word, when once exposed shows nothing there. But a wise man has much to learn without a loss of dignity.
SOPHOCLES
Antigone
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
Note Books
Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.
JOHN MILTON
Areopagitica
Public opinion, or what passes for public opinion, is not invariably a moderating force in the jungle of politics.
GEORGE F. KENNAN
"World War I", American Diplomacy
Few have opinions: fewer still have their own opinions.
IVAN PANIN
Thoughts
Most often people seek in life occasions for persisting in their opinions rather than for educating themselves.
ANDRE GIDE
Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality