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![]() OPINION . . . 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 (12251274) 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 (18261877) 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 (17711852) 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 (18701965) 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 (16471706) French philosopher. Attributed in Norman Lewis Torrey _Les Philosophes The Philosophers of the Enlightenment ..._ [1960]. - Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. --Henry Ward Beecher (18131887) 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 (18131887) 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 (18421914) 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 (18421914) 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 (17571827) 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 (18661951) 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 (17141775) 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 (16921752) 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 (16121680) 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] (17881824) 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] (19001985) 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 (18831971) 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] (18281896) 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] (16941773) British writer and politician. Letter to his son [16 October 1747]. Though the whole word grumble, I will speak my mind. --Marcus Tullius Cicero (10643 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 (17891851) 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 (18571938) 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.364c.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 (15961650) 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 (18041881) 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 (18591930) 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 (18301916) 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 (18091894) 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 (18791955) German-American physicist. Communication of March 19, 1940 to Morris Raphael Cohen, as quoted in Otto Nathan & Heinz Norden (eds.) _Einstein on Peace_ [1968]. - 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 (18031882) 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 (18031882) 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 (18031882) American philosopher and poet. "Worship" (essay) [1860] The only sin which we never forgive in each other is difference of opinion. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882) American philosopher and poet. _Society and Solitude_, ch. 9 [1870] People only see what they are prepared to see. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882) 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 (341270 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] (18441924) 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 (17061790) 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 (17371794) 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 (18361911) English writer of comic and satirical verse. _Ruddigore_, act I [1887] - I can promise to be upright, but not to be without bias. --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (17491832) 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 (17491832) German poet, novelist, and playwright. Attributed in Rudolf Flesch _The Art of Clear Thinking_ [1951]. - 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 (17971856) 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. (18091894) American physician, poet, and essayist. - The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: Be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge. --Elbert Hubbard (18591915) 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 (18591915) American editor, publisher, and author who died in the sinking of the "Lusitania." "The Philistine" (mag.) [March 1903] - Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots. --Victor Hugo (18021885) 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 (18941963) 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 (17831859) 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 (18921954) 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 (17431826) American statesman and president [18011809]. _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 (17091784) 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 (17541824) 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 (17951821) 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 (19322009) 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 (18881957) English writer and Roman Catholic priest. "Reunion All Round" [1914] - 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 (16131680) French classical author. _Maxims_ [1665] We hardly find any persons of good sense save those who agree with us. --Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (16131680) French classical author. _Reflections; or, Sentences and Moral Maxims_, maxim 347 [1678] - - Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinions at all. --Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (17421799) 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 (17421799) German scientist and drama critic. Quoted in Adolf Wilbrandt (ed.) _Selected Writings of Georg C. Lichtenberg_ [1893]. - New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not common. --John Locke (16321704) English political and educational philosopher. _An Essay Concerning Human Understanding_ [1690] The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinion. --James Russell Lowell (18191891) 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 (18141889) 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 (17531821) 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 (18881923) 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 (18061873) 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 (18061873) 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 (16081674) 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 (18401926) 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] (19031950) 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 (17431805) 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 (16881744) 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 (582486 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 (15921644) 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] (18791935) 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] (17541793) French writer and political figure. Attributed in J. De Finod (collected and translated) _A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness_ [1881]. - 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 (18721970) 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 (18721970) 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 (18721970) 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 (18721970) 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 (18721970) 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 (18721970) British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate. _The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell: 19141944_ [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 (18631952) 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 (17511816) 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 (18201903) 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 (16321677) 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 (18501894) 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 (16671745) Anglo-Irish poet and satirist. _Thoughts on Various Subjects_ [1706] Arguments only confirm people in their own opinions. --Booth Tarkington (18691946) 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 (16281699) 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] (18351910) 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] (18351910) 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] (18351910) 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) (16941778) 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 (16741748) 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 (19031966) 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 (18821941) 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 (18651939) 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. end page | NAME CALLING - NASTINESS | NATIONALISM - NATIONS | NATURE | NAVY - NEGLECT | NEIGHBORS/NEIGHBORHOOD - NEW YORK | NEW YORK CITY | NEWS - NEWSPEAK | NICE - NONCONFORMITY | NIXON YEARS | NONSENSE - NOVEMBER | NUCLEAR WAR - NURSERY RHYMES | OBESITY - OBSTACLES | OBSTINACY - OKLAHOMA | OLD - OLD AGE | OLD-FASHIONED - OPERA | OPINION | OPPORTUNITY - ORGANIZATION | ORIGINALITY - OYSTERS | | H | I - J | K - L | M | N - O | P - Q | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews | |
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