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OPINION

.
.
.

see: "CERTAINTY"
see: "PUBLIC OPINION"
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.

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 (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].

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.

The antiquity and general acceptance of an
opinion is not assurance of its truth.
--Pierre Bayle (1647—1706)
French philosopher.

-

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.]


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]

-

-

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_).

-

The man who never alters his opinions is like standing
water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.
--William Blake (1757—1827)
English poet.

If in the last few years you haven't discarded a major opinion
or acquired a new one, check your pulse. You may be dead.
--Gelett Burgess (1866—1951)
American writer, poet, and humorist.

-

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.
--Samuel Butler (1612—1680)
English poet and satirist.
"The Obstinate Man"


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.

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.

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.

We cling to our own point of view, as though everything
depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence;
like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.
--Chuang-tzu (369—286 B.C.)
Chinese interpreter of Taoism.

Though the whole word grumble, I will speak my mind.
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC)
Roman orator and statesman.
"De oratore"

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

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]

-

I had grown tired of standing in the lean and
lonely front line facing the greatest enemy
that ever confronted man — public opinion.
--Clarence Darrow (1857—1938)
American lawyer.


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]

-

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]

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]

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.

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 who developed the
special and general theories of relativity.
In Abraham Pais _Einstein Lived Here_. p. 219 [1994].

The only sin which we never forgive in
each other is difference of opinion.
--Lydian Emerson (1802—1892)
Second wife of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

-

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy
in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who
in the midst of the crowd keeps the perfect sweetness and
independence of solitude.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.


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.


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

-

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.
--Anatole France [Jacques Anatole Thibault] (1844—1924)
French novelist, man of letters, and winner of the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1921.

You've no idea 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 1

-

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.


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

-

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" [1837], ch. 9

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

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

Of all the illusions that beset mankind, none is quite so
curious as [the] 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."
Quoted in Laurence J. Peter _Peter's People_ [1979].

Change your opinions, keep to your principles;
change your leaves, keep intact your roots.
--Victor Hugo (1802—1885)
French poet, dramatist, and novelist.

^^

'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 (1951— )
American actress.
Speaking of her father, John Huston.

^^

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}.

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]

-

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_ [1784], query 17


Is uniformity of opinion desirable? No
more than that of face and stature.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
_Notes on the State of Virginia_ [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.
In James Boswell _Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791]; [in 1780].


The greatest part of mankind have no other
reasons for their opinions than they are
in fashion.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.

-

Those who never retract their opinions love
themselves more than they love truth.
--Joseph Joubert (1754—1824)
French philosopher.

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.

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.
--(MA.) Sen. Ted Kennedy,
presenting the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Profile in Courage
Award to Gerald R. Ford [2001], thereby admitting that
Ford was correct to pardon Richard 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]

We've come a long way in America. After two
centuries, it seems we finally do have a
religious test for office. True religiosity
is disqualifying. Well, not quite. Believers
may serve but only if they check their belief
at the office door. At a time when religion
is a preference and piety a form of eccentricity
suggesting fanaticism, Chesterton needs revision:
tolerance is not just the virtue of people who do
not believe in anything; tolerance extends only
to people who don't believe in anything. Believe
in something, and beware. You may not warrant
presidential-level attack, but you'll make yourself
suspect should you dare enter the naked public
square.
--Charles Krauthammer (1950— )
Columnist for the Washington Post who
won the Pulitzer Prize in 1987.

Great things are not accomplished by those
who yield to trends and fads and popular
opinion.
--Charles Kuralt (1934—1997)
American journalist and broadcaster.

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]

-

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 not to judge men by their opinions
but rather by what their opinions make of them.
--Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742—1799)
German scientist and drama critic.

-

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]

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 Soirpes de Saint-Pptersbourg,_
"First Dialogue," [1821].

Do not think of knocking out anothers 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.
--Horace Mann (1796—1859)
American educator.

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].

-

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]

-

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 metier at all!"
--Claude Monet (1840—1926)
French painter who was the leader of
the Impressionist movement in France.

The point is that we are all capable of believing things
which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally
proven wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show
that we were right.
--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950)
English novelist.

When much dispute has past,
We find our tenets just the same as last.
--Alexander Pope (1688—1744)
English poet.

Rest satisfied with doing well, and leave
others to talk of you as they please.
--Pythagoras (582—486 B.C.)
Ionian mathematician and philosopher.

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.

-

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_ [1929], ch. 5


Be wary of opinions that flatter your self-esteem.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.


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]


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.


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_ [1938], ch. 2


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]

-

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.

-

We suffer more from our opinions that we do
from the events themselves.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C.— 65 A.D.)
Roman philosopher and poet.


Provided we look to and satisfy our consciences, no matter
for opinion; let me deserve well though I hear ill.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C.— 65 A.D.)
Roman philosopher and poet.

-

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 Moss Seton ( —1975)

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_ [1779], act I, sc. 2

Wind puffs up empty bladders; opinions, fools.
--Socrates (470?—399 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.

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.

He whose honor depends on 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_ [1677] pt. III

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.

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.

-

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.


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]


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

-

Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth
than plagues or earthquakes.
--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.

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 opinion
of others.
--Virginia Woolf (1882—1941)
English novelist.

-----

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.

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.
Ex.: And, as is common in books sewn together from previously
published essays, certain redundancies obtrude.
--Maxine Kumin,
"First, Perfect Fear; Then, Universal Love,"
_New York Times_, [17 October 1993]

pertinacious [puhr-tin-AY-shuhs], adjective:
1. Holding or adhering obstinately to any opinion,
purpose, or design.
2. Stubbornly or perversely persistent.
Ex.: The cabman replied: 'If you will excuse me, your
coat lapels are badly twisted downward, where they have
been grasped by the pertinacious New York reporters.'
--David Walton, "Sherlock Holmes's Maker,"
"New York Times" [2 May 1999]
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 1: 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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