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OPINION

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see: "CERTAINTY"
see: "CHANGING (ONE'S MIND)"
see: "DISSENT"
see: "IDEAS"
see: "JUDGEMENT"
see: "PHILOSOPHY"
see: "PUBLIC OPINION"
see: "THOUGHT"
see: "BELIEF" for other related links


We must love them both — those whose opinions we
share and those whose opinions we reject. For both
have labored in the search for truth, and both have
helped us in the finding of it.
--St. Thomas Aquinas (1225—1274)
Catholic philosopher and theologian.
Attributed in Thomas Merton _Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander_ [1966].

I've never had a humble opinion in my life.
If you're going to have one, why bother to
be humble about it?
--Joan Baez (b. 1941)
American folk singer.
In "International Herald Tribune" (Paris) [2 Dec. 1992].

One of the most common defects of half-instructed minds
is to think much of that in which they differ from others,
and little of that in which they agree with others.
--Walter Bagehot (1826—1877)
British economist and essayist.
In "Economist" [11 June 1870].

The oppression of any people for opinion's sake has rarely had any
other effect than to fix those opinions deeper and render them more
important.
--Hosea Ballou (1771—1852)
American theologian.
Quoted in John L. Stoddard _Rebuilding a Lost Faith_ [1826].

Every man has a right to his own opinion, but
no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.
--Bernard Baruch (1870—1965)
American financier.
Quoted in "Think" [pub. by I.B.M., July 1948].

The antiquity and general acceptance of
an opinion is no assurance of its truth.
--Pierre Bayle (1647—1706)
French philosopher.
Attributed in Norman Lewis Torrey _Les Philosophes
The Philosophers of the Enlightenment ..._ [1960].

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Private opinion is weak, but public
opinion is almost omnipotent.
--Henry Ward Beecher (1813—1887)
American Congregational minister; brother of
Harriet Beecher Stowe, son of Lyman Beecher.
Quoted in Henry Ward Beecher and Edna Dean Proctor, _Life Thoughts: Gathered
From the Extemporaneous Discourses of Henry Ward Beecher_ [1858].


There is nothing that makes more cowards
and feeble men than public opinion.
--Henry Ward Beecher (1813—1887)
American Congregational minister; brother of
Harriet Beecher Stowe, son of Lyman Beecher.
_Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit_ [1887]

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BIGOT, n. One who is obstinately and zealously
attached to an opinion that you do not entertain.
--Ambrose Bierce (1842—1914)
American newspaperman, wit, and satirist.
_The Cynic's Word Book_ [1906] (Retitled in 1911 as _The Devil's Dictionary_.)


IMPARTIAL, adj. Unable to perceive any promise of personal
advantage from espousing either side of a controversy or
adopting either of two conflicting opinions.
--Ambrose Bierce (1842—1914)
American newspaperman, wit, and satirist.
_The Cynic's Word Book_ [1906] (Retitled in 1911 as _The Devil's Dictionary_.)

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The man who never alters his opinions is like
standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.
--William Blake (1757—1827)
English poet.
_The Marriage of Heaven and Hell_ [c. 1790/93]

If in the last few years you haven't discarded a major
opinion or acquired a new one, investigate and see
if you're not getting senile.
--Gelett Burgess (1866—1951)
American writer, poet, and humorist.
Quoted in "Saturday Review" [1948].

Do not think of knocking out another person's brains
because he differs in opinion from you. It would be
as rational to knock yourself on the head because
you differ from yourself ten years ago.
--James Burgh (1714—1775)
Scottish author.
_The Dignity of Human Nature_ [1754]

The obstinate man does not hold Opinions, but
they hold him; for once he is possessed with an
Error, 'tis like the Devil, not to be cast out but
with great Difficulty.
--Joseph Butler (1692—1752)
English bishop and philosopher.
Attributed in Josiah H. Gilbert
_Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers_, p. 437 [1895].

He that complies against his will
Is of his own opinion still.
--Samuel Butler (1612—1680)
English poet and satirist.
"Hudibras" [1663], pt. III [1678], canto III, l. 547

Opinions are made to be changed —
or how is truth to be got at?
--Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824)
English Romantic poet and satirist.
Letter to John Murray [9 May 1817].

Contrary to general opinion, women are not
so sentimental as men, but are much more
hardheaded.
--Taylor Caldwell [Janet Taylor Caldwell] (1900—1985)
American novelist born in England; she also wrote
under the pseudonym of Max Reiner.
Quoted in "Ladies' Home Journal" [1947].

The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.
--attributed to Coco Chanel (1883—1971)
French fashion designer.

To know how to say what other people only think is what makes
men poets and sages; and to dare to say what others only dare
to think, makes men martyrs or reformers, or both.
--Elizabeth Charles [nθe Rundle] (1828—1896)
English religious writer.
_Chronicle of the Schonberg-Cotta Family_ [1863]

Give your opinion modestly and coolly,
which is the only way to convince.
--Lord Chesterfield [Philip Dormer Stanhope] (1694—1773)
British writer and politician.
Letter to his son [16 October 1747].

Though the whole word grumble, I will speak my mind.
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC)
Roman orator and statesman.
_De Oratore_ (On The Orator) [55 B.C.]

Your opinion holds as much weight
with me as a hummingbird feather.
--J.D. Cooper, alt.fifty-plus.friends, Usenet newsgroup [7 May 2004].

It is the besetting vice of democracies to substitute public
opinion for law. This is the usual form in which the masses
of men exhibit their tyranny.
--James Fenimore Cooper (1789—1851)
American novelist.
_The American Democrat_ [1838]

The world is made up for the most part of morons
and natural tyrants, sure of themselves, strong in
their own opinions, never doubting anything.
--Clarence Darrow (1857—1938)
American lawyer.
_Personal Liberty_ [1928]

Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each
man wishes, that he also believes to be true.
--Demosthenes (c.364—c.322 B.C.)
Athenian orator and statesman.
_Third Olynthiac_, sec. 19

All those who hold opinions quite opposed to ours
are not on that account barbarians or savages.
--Renι Descartes (1596—1650)
French philosopher and mathematician.
_Discourse on Method and the Meditations_ [1637]

'My idea of an agreeable person,' said Hugo
Bohun, 'is a person who agrees with me.'
--Benjamin Disraeli (1804—1881)
British Tory statesman, novelist, and Prime Minister [1868, 1874-80].
_Lothair_, ch. 41 [1870]

I have learned never to ridicule any man's
opinion, however strange it may seem.
--Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859—1930)
Scottish-born writer of detective fiction.
"The Captain of the Polestar" [1890]

We are so vain that we even care for the
opinion of those we don't care for.
--Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830—1916)
Austrian writer.
_Aphorisms_ [1905], as quoted in Bill Swainson (ed.)
_Encarta Book of Quotations_ [2000].

He that never changes his opinions, never corrects his
mistakes, will never be wiser on the morrow than he
is today.
--Tryon Edwards (1809—1894)
American theologian.
Attributed in _Oregon Teachers' Monthly_ [February 1916].

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition
from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of
understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to
conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express
his opinions courageously and honestly.
--Albert Einstein (1879—1955)
German-American physicist.
Communication of March 19, 1940 to Morris Raphael Cohen,
as quoted in Otto Nathan & Heinz Norden (eds.)
_Einstein on Peace_ [1968].

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It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy
in solitude to live after our own. But the great man is he who
in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the
independence of solitude.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
"Ethics", lecture at the Masonic Temple, Boston, Mass. [17 February 1837].


A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,
adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.
He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the
wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-
morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words
again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
_Essays_ [1841] "Self-Reliance"


People seem not to see that their opinion of
the world is also a confession of character.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
"Worship" (essay) [1860]


The only sin which we never forgive in
each other is difference of opinion.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
_Society and Solitude_, ch. 9 [1870]


People only see what they are prepared to see.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
_Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson_ [1913]

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If you live according to nature, you will never be poor;
if you live according to (public) opinion, you will never
be rich.
--Epicurus (341—270 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.
In Seneca the Younger (5? B.C.-A.D.65)
"On Philosophy, the Guide of Life" tr. Richard M. Gummere [1918].

If 50 million people believe a foolish
thing, it is still a foolish thing.
--attributed to Anatole France [Jacques Anatole Thibault] (1844—1924)
French novelist, man of letters, and winner
of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1921.

A Man must have a good deal of Vanity who believes,
and a good deal of Boldness who affirms, that all the
Doctrines he holds are true, and all he rejects, are
false.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
Letter to his Father & Mother [13 April 1738].

I never make the mistake of arguing with people
for whose opinions I have no respect.
--Edward Gibbon (1737—1794)
English historian.
Attributed in "The Fra" (mag.) [May 1913].

You've no idea of what a poor opinion I have
of myself — and how little I deserve it.
--W. S. Gilbert (1836—1911)
English writer of comic and satirical verse.
_Ruddigore_, act I [1887]

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I can promise to be upright, but not to be without bias.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749—1832)
German poet, novelist, and playwright.
_Maxims and Reflections_ [1819]


It is always better to say right out what you
think without trying to prove anything much:
for all our proofs are only variations of our
opinions, and the contrary-minded listen
neither to one nor the other.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749—1832)
German poet, novelist, and playwright.
Attributed in Rudolf Flesch _The Art of Clear Thinking_ [1951].

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People in those old times had convictions; we moderns have only
opinions. And it needs more than a mere opinion to erect a Gothic
cathedral.
--Heinrich Heine (1797—1856)
German poet.
"The French Stage", ch. 9 [1837]

It is well to remember that the entire universe,
with one trifling exception, is composed of
others.
--attributed to John Andrew Holmes (1874—?)
American physician and writer.

To obtain a man's opinion of you, make him mad.
--usually attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809—1894)
American physician, poet, and essayist.

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The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: Be
satisfied with your opinions and content
with your knowledge.
--Elbert Hubbard (1859—1915)
American editor, publisher, and author who died in the sinking of the "Lusitania".
"The Philistine" (mag.) [June 1897]


Of all the illusions that beset mankind, none is quite
so curious as that tendency to suppose that we are
mentally and morally superior to those who differ
from us in opinion.
--Elbert Hubbard (1859—1915)
American editor, publisher, and author who died in the sinking of the "Lusitania."
"The Philistine" (mag.) [March 1903]

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Change your opinions, keep to your principles;
change your leaves, keep intact your roots.
--Victor Hugo (1802—1885)
French poet, dramatist, and novelist.
In Lorenzo O'Rourke (tr.) _Victor Hugo's Intellectual Autobiography_ [1907].

^^

[Of her father, John Huston:]
'You don't like van Gogh?' he countered. 'Then name me
six of his paintings and tell me why you don't like them.'
I couldn't, of course, and he said, 'Leave the room, and
until you know what you're talking about, don't come
back with your opinions to the dinner table.'
--Anjelica Huston (b. 1951)
American actress.
Quoted in "Reader's Digest" [1988].

^^

Single-mindedness is all very well in cows or
baboons; in an animal claiming to belong to
the same species as Shakespeare it is simply
disgraceful.
--Aldous Huxley (1894—1963)
English novelist (Grandson of T.H. Huxley.)
_Do What You Will, Essays_, p. 303 [1930]

I was at that age when a man knows least and
is most vain of his knowledge; and when he is
extremely tenacious in defending his opinion
upon subjects about which he knows nothing.
--Washington Irving (1783—1859)
American writer.
"Buckthorne; or, the Young Man of Great Expectations,"
in _Tales of a Traveller_ [1824].

Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves
exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves
only the unanimity of the graveyard.
--Robert H. Jackson (1892—1954)
U.S. Supreme Court Justice [1941-54]
Chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials.
Opinion, "West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette" [1943].

Is uniformity [of opinion] attainable? Millions of innocent
men, women, and children, since the introduction of
Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned;
yet we have not advanced one inch toward uniformity.
What has been the effect of coercion? To make one
half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
_Notes on the State of Virginia_, query 17 [1784]

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and
every other man has a right to knock him down for it.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
1780 remark quoted in James Boswell
_Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791].

Those who never retract their opinions love
themselves more than they love truth.
--Joseph Joubert (1754—1824)
French philosopher.
_The Pensees of Joubert_ [1877], selected & translated by Henry Attwell.

The only means of strengthening one's intellect
is to make up one's mind about nothing — to
let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts.
--John Keats (1795—1821)
English poet.
Letter to George Keats [September 1819].

I was one of those who spoke out about his
action then. But time has a way of clarifying
past events, and now we see that President
Ford was right.
--Ted Kennedy (1932—2009)
American politician.
Presenting the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Profile in Courage
Award to Gerald R. Ford [2001], thereby admitting that
Ford was correct to pardon Richard M. Nixon.

Thank God, in these days of enlightenment and establishment,
everyone has a right to his own opinions, and chiefly to the
opinion that nobody else has a right to theirs.
--Ronald Knox (1888—1957)
English writer and Roman Catholic priest.
"Reunion All Round" [1914]

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Those who obstinately oppose the most widely-held
opinions more often do so because of pride than lack
of intelligence. They find the best places in the right
set already taken, and they do not want back seats.
--Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.
_Maxims_ [1665]


We hardly find any persons of good
sense save those who agree with us.
--Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.
_Reflections; or, Sentences and Moral Maxims_, maxim 347 [1678]

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Nothing is more conducive to peace of
mind than not having any opinions at all.
--Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742—1799)
German scientist and drama critic.
_Aphorisms_ [1765-1799], "Notebook E", Aphorism 11


It is a golden rule that one should not judge people according
to their opinions, but according to what these opinions make
of them.
--Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742—1799)
German scientist and drama critic.
Quoted in Adolf Wilbrandt (ed.)
_Selected Writings of Georg C. Lichtenberg_ [1893].

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New opinions are always suspected, and usually
opposed, without any other reason but because
they are not common.
--John Locke (1632—1704)
English political and educational philosopher.
_An Essay Concerning Human Understanding_ [1690]

The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinion.
--James Russell Lowell (1819—1891)
American poet, critic, essayist, and diplomat.
"Abraham Lincoln" [1864]

Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that
they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses
slowly, and one by one.
--Charles Mackay (1814—1889)
Scottish poet and newspaperman.
_Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds_ [1841]

False opinions are like false money, struck first of all by
guilty men and thereafter circulated by honest people
who perpetuate the crime without knowing what they
are doing.
--Joseph-Marie, Comte de Maistre (1753—1821)
French diplomat and writer.
The Count, in _Les Soirιes de Saint-Pιtersbourg,_ [1821] "First Dialogue"

Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinion
of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing
on earth for you. Act for yourself.
--Katherine Mansfield (1888—1923)
New Zealand writer.
"Journal" [14 October 1922]

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The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is,
that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing
generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than
those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of
the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they
lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception
and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with
error.
--John Stuart Mill (1806—1873)
English philosopher and social reformer.
_On Liberty_, ch. 2 [1859]


If all mankind minus one were of one 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 (1806—1873)
English philosopher and social reformer.
_On Liberty_, ch. 2 [1859]

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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 (1608—1674)
English poet.
_Areopagitica: a Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing_ [1644]

Manet wanted one day to paint my wife and
children. Renoir was there. He took a canvas
and began painting them, too. After a while,
Manet took me aside and whispered, "You're
on very good terms with Renoir and take an
interest in his future — do advise him to give
up painting! You can see for yourself that it's
not his job."
--Claude Monet (1840—1926)
French painter who was the leader of
the Impressionist movement in France.
Quoted in "Apollo: A Journal of the Arts" [1976].

The point is that we are all capable of believing things
which we *know* to be untrue, and then, when we are
finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so
as to show that we were right.
--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950)
English novelist.
"In Front of Your Nose", essay printed in _Tribune_ [22 March 1946];
reprinted in _The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George
Orwell_ ed. Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus, vol. 4 [4 vols., 1968].

Agreeing to differ.
[Latin: Discors concordia.]
--Ovid [Publius Ovidius Naso] (43 B.C.—18 A.D.)
Roman poet.
"Metamorphoses" I. 433

There is a principle which is a bar against all information,
which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail
to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. That principle
is contempt prior to investigation.
--William Paley (1743—1805)
English theologian and philosopher.
Quoted in William Henry Poole
_Anglo-Israel; or, The British Nation The Lost Tribes of Israel_ [1879].

When much dispute has past,
We find our tenets just the same at last.
--Alexander Pope (1688—1744)
English poet.
_Moral Essays_, epis. III, l. 15 [1731-1735]

Rest satisfied with doing well, and leave
others to talk of you as they please.
--Pythagoras (582—486 B.C.)
Ionian mathematician and philosopher.
Attributed in Tryon Edwards (using pseud. Everard
Berkeley) _The World's Laconics..._, p. 71 [1853].

Opinion is a bold bastard.
--Francis Quarles (1592—1644)
English poet.
_Enchiridion_ [1640]

Broad-minded is just another way of saying
a fellow is too lazy to form an opinion.
--Will Rogers [William Penn Adair Rogers] (1879—1935)
American humorist and actor.
Quoted in Bryan B. Sterling (ed.) _The Best of Will Rogers_ [1990 ed.].

The feeble tremble before opinion, the foolish
defy it, the wise judge it, the skillful direct it.
--Marie-Jeanne Roland de la Platiθre [Madame Roland] (1754—1793)
French writer and political figure.
Attributed in J. De Finod (collected and translated)
_A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness_ [1881].

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The opinions that are held with passion are always those
for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is
the measure of the holder's lack of rational conviction.
Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held
passionately.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.
_Sceptical Essays_ [1928]


The fact that an opinion has been widely held is
no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd;
indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority
of mankind, a wide-spread belief is more likely
to be foolish than sensible.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.
_Marriage and Morals_, ch. 5 [1929]


One should respect public opinion insofar as is
necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of
prison, but anything that goes beyond this is
voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.
_The Conquest of Happiness_, ch. 9 [1930]


Something of the hermit's temper is an essential element in
many forms of excellence, since it enables men to resist the
lure of popularity, to pursue important work in spite of
general indifference or hostility, and arrive at opinions
which are opposed to prevalent errors.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.
_Power: A New Social Analysis_, ch. 2 [1938]


Be very wary of opinions that flatter your self-esteem.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.
_An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish_ [1943]


Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every
opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.
_The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell: 1914—1944_ [1968]

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Man is a gregarious animal, and much more so in his mind than
in his body. He may like to go alone for a walk, but he hates
to stand alone in his opinions.
--George Santayana (1863—1952)
Spanish-born philosopher and critic.
Quoted in Charles Arthur Siepmann _Radio, Television and Society_ [1950].

We have no more right to put our discordant states
of mind into the lives of those around us and rob
them of their sunshine and brightness than we have
to enter their houses and steal their silverware.
--Julia Seton (?—1975)
Quoted in "Forbes" [1965].

The number of those who undergo the fatigue
of judging for themselves is very small indeed.
--Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751—1816)
Anglo-Irish dramatist.
_The Critic_, I, ii [1779]

Stubbornness and stupidity are twins.
--Sophocles (496?—406 B.C.)
Greek dramatist.
"Antigone," tr. Elizabeth Wyckoff [1954]

Opinion is ultimately determined by
the feelings and not by the intellect.
--Herbert Spencer (1820—1903)
English philosopher.
_Social Statics_, ch. XXX [1851]

He whose honor depends on the opinion of the mob
must day by day strive with the greatest anxiety, act
and scheme in order to retain his reputation. For the
mob is varied and inconstant, and therefore if a
reputation is not carefully preserved it dies quickly.
--Benedict de Spinoza (1632—1677)
Dutch-Jewish philosopher, the foremost exponent of 17th century Rationalism.
_Ethics_, pt. IV [1677]

When an old gentlemen waggles his head and says: 'Ah,
so I thought when I was your age,' it is not thought an
answer at all, if the young man retorts: 'My venerable
sir, so I shall most probably think when I am yours.'
And yet the one is as good as the other.
--Robert Louis Stevenson (1850—1894)
Scottish essayist, poet, and novelist.
_Virginibus Puerisque_ [1881] "Crabbed Age and Youth"

'That was excellently observed,' say I, when I read a passage in
an author where his opinion agrees with mine. When we differ,
there I pronounce him to be mistaken.
--Jonathan Swift (1667—1745)
Anglo-Irish poet and satirist.
_Thoughts on Various Subjects_ [1706]

Arguments only confirm people in their own opinions.
--Booth Tarkington (1869—1946)
American novelist and dramatist.
_Looking Forward to the Great Adventure_ [1926]

The best rules to form a young man are to talk little,
to hear much, to reflect alone upon what has passed
in company, to distrust one's own opinions, and value
others that deserve it.
--Sir William Temple (1628—1699)
English statesman and diplomat.
Quoted in John Timbs _Laconics: Or, The Best
Words of the Best Authors_, p. 196 [1829].

-

It were not best that we should all think alike;
it is difference of opinion that makes horse-races.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_Pudd'nhead Wilson_ [1894], ch. 19 epigraph: "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar"


Whenever you find yourself on the side of
the majority, it's time to pause and reflect.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
[13 October 1904] in _Mark Twain's Notebook_, ed. Albert Bigelow Paine [1935].


In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_Christian Science_, bk. I, ch. 5 [1907]

-

Opinion has caused more trouble on this
little earth than plagues or earthquakes.
--attributed to Voltaire (Franηois Marie Arouet) (1694—1778)
French writer and philosopher.

A dogmatical spirit inclines a man to be censorious of
his neighbors. Every one of his opinions appears to him
written, as it were, with sunbeams, and he grows angry
that his neighbors do not see it in the same light. He is
tempted to disdain his correspondents as men of low
and dark understandings because they do not believe
what he does.
--Isaac Watts (1674—1748)
English hymn writer.
_The Improvement of the Mind_, ch. 1 [1741]

Don't give your opinions about Art and the Purpose of Life.
They are of little interest and, anyway, you can't express
them. Don't analyse yourself. Give the relevant facts and
let your readers make their own judgments.
--Evelyn Waugh (1903—1966)
Engish novelist.
In a review of Stephen Spender's autobiography,
"World Within World;" in "Tablet," (London) [5 May 1951].

Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men
who have minded beyond reason the opinions
of others.
--Virginia Woolf (1882—1941)
English novelist.
_A Room of One's Own_ [1929]

The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
--William Butler Yeats (1865—1939)
Irish poet and dramatist who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.
"The Second Coming" [1921]

-----

bigot (noun) ['bi-gκt]
An extremely prejudiced fanatic obstinately wedded to a
particular opinion or attitude and passionately intolerant
of those who disagree.

heretic (noun)
1. Somebody who holds unorthodox religious belief:
a holder or adherent of an opinion or belief that
contradicts established religious teaching.
2. Somebody with unconventional beliefs: somebody
whose opinions, beliefs, or theories in any field
are considered by others in that field to be extremely
unconventional or unorthodox.

heterodox (adj.) [HET-uh-ruh-doks],
1. Contrary to or differing from some acknowledged standard,
especially in church doctrine or dogma; unorthodox.
2. Holding unorthodox opinions or doctrines.

iconoclast [ahy-KON-uh-klast], noun:
A person who attacks cherished beliefs
or institutions as foolish or wrong.

immutable (adj.)
Not changing or not able to be changed.

obtrude [uhb-TROOD]; transitive verb:
1. To thrust out; to push out.
2. To force or impose (one's self, remarks, opinions, etc.)
on others with undue insistence or without solicitation.
intransitive verb:
To thrust upon a group or upon attention; to intrude.

pertinacious [puhr-tin-AY-shuhs], adjective:
1. Holding or adhering obstinately to any
opinion, purpose, or design.
2. Stubbornly or perversely persistent.
Synonyms: determined, dogged, headstrong, inflexible, mulish,
obstinate, pigheaded, resolute, stubborn, unyielding

recant (verb)
Formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief,
usually under pressure.
Synonyms: abjure, forswear, retract, resile

tendentious (adjective) [ten-'den-chκs]
Exhibiting a strong tendency or point of
view, overbearingly didactic or partisan.
Usage: Not to be confused with "tendential" which
means simply "relating to a tendency." "Tendential
ideas" are those with a decided point of view but
not an overbearing one. "Tendentious ideas" so
strongly support a tendency as to become repulsive.


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