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. . . PUBLIC OPINION see: "THE MOB" see: "OPINION" see: "POPULARITY" see: "THE HUMAN RACE" for other related links Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to think other men's thoughts, to speak other men's words, to follow other men's habits. --Walter Bagehot (18261877) British economist and essayist. "The Character of Sir Robert Peel" in _The National Review_ [July 1856] - 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] - If Rosa Parks had taken a poll before she sat down in the bus in Montgomery, she'd still be standing. --Mary Frances Berry (b. 1938) American lawyer and administrator. In Brian Lanker _I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America_ [1989] "Mary Francis Berry". No written law has ever been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion. --Carrie Chapman Catt (18591947) American women's suffrage leader. "Why We Ask for the Submission of an Amendment," speech in Senate hearing on woman's suffrage [13 February 1900]. It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny. --James Fenimore Cooper (17891851) American novelist. _The American Democrat_ [1838] It is said that public opinion will not bear it. Really? Public opinion, I am sorry to say, will bear a great deal of nonsense. There is scarce any absurdity so gross whether in religion, politics, science, or manners, which it will not bear. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882) American philosopher and poet. Entry dated December 1827, in his _Journal_. 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]. In cinema theatres up & down the United Kingdom newsreels showing Adolf Hitler's troops rupturing the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact by marching into the Rhineland were received with murmurs of approval, applause and even cheers as last week opened. Newsreels of Poilus marching up to defend the French frontier were almost everywhere received by Britons in silence. Inquiring reporters for Baron Beaverbrook stopped 5,000 citizens to ask: "Do you on the whole prefer the French or the Germans?" The answer, blazoned next day in London's Daily Express, was that 21% had no preference, 24% preferred the French and 55% preferred the Germans. --"Germans Preferred" _Time_ [23 March 1936] The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and, however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true to fact. The people are turbulent and changing, they seldom judge or determine right. --Alexander Hamilton (1755/571804) New York delegate to the Constitutional Convention, major author of the _Federalist Papers_, and first secretary of the Treasury of the United States [1789-95]. In a speech at the Constitutional Convention [18 June 1787]. Public opinion, a vulgar, impertinent, anonymous tyrant who deliberately makes life unpleasant for anyone who is not content to be the average man. --William Ralph Inge (18601954) English writer and Dean of St. Paul's [1911-34]. _Outspoken Essays: First Series_ [1919] "Our Present Discontents" Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one. --James Madison (17511836) Fourth president of the United States [1809-17]. [19 December 1791] in William T. Hutchinson (ed.) _The Papers of James Madison_ [1977], vol. 14. Public opinion, because of the tremendous urge to conformity in gregarious animals, is less tolerant than any system of law. --George Orwell [Eric Blair] (19031950) English novelist. "Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels" [Sept.-Oct. 1946] in _The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell_ vol. 4, ed. Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus [1968]. The People's Voice is odd, It is, and it is not, the voice of God. --Alexander Pope (16881744) English poet. _Imitations of Horace_ 2.1 (Epistle), 89 [1733-38] 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]. Here is the thing you must bear in mind. I do not represent public opinion: I represent the public. There is a wide difference between the two, between the real interests of the public, and the public's opinion of these interests. --Theodore Roosevelt (18581919) American Republican statesman and President [1901-09]. Interview with reporter Ray Stannard Baker [9 February 1906], quoted in Edmund Morris, _Theodore Rex_ [2001]. - 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] - Nothing shall I ever do for the sake of [public] opinion, everything for the sake of my conscience. --Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C.65 A.D.) Roman philosopher and poet. _Moral Essays_, tr. John W. Basore [1928] "On the Happy Life" Public opinion is often erratic, inconsistent, arbitrary, and unreasonable [and it] rarely considers the needs of the next generation or the history of the last. It is frequently hampered by myths and misinformation, by stereotypes and shibboleths, and by an inate resistance to innovation. --Theodore Sorensen (19282010) American lawyer, author, and speechwriter for President John F. Kennedy. _Decision-Making in the White House_ [1963] Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate. --Henry David Thoreau (18171862) American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher. _Walden_ [1854] I wonder how far Moses would have gone if he had taken a poll in Egypt? What would Jesus Christ have preached if he had taken a poll in the land of Israel? [...] It isn't polIs or public opinion alone of the moment that counts. It is right and wrong, and leadership men with fortitude, honesty and a belief in the right that make epochs in the history of the world. --Harry S Truman (18841972) American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1945-53]. In William Hillman _Mr. President: The First Publication from the Personal Diaries, Private Letters, Papers and Revealing Interviews of Harry S. Truman_ [1952]. Public opinion is stronger than the legislature, and nearly as strong as the ten commandments. --Charles Dudley Warner (18291900) American newspaperman, author, editor, and publisher. _My Summer in a Garden_ [1871] "Sixteenth Week" It always has been, and will continue to be, my earnest desire to learn and to comply, as far as is consistent, with the public sentiment; but it is on *great* occasions *only*, and after time has been given for cool and deliberate reflection, that the *real* voice of the people can be known. --George Washington (17321799) American general and commander-in-chief of the colonial armies in the American Revolution [1775-83] and first president of the United States [1789-97]. Letter to Edward Carrington [1 May 1796].  . . see: "ORATORS" see: "COMMUNICATION" for other related links - On the question of the logical content of Dr. Harding's harangue of last Friday, I do not presume to have views. [...] But when it comes to the style of the great man's discourse, I can speak with [...] somewhat more competence, for I have earned most of my livelihood for twenty years past by translating the bad English of a multitude of authors into measurably better English. Thus qualified professionally, I rise to pay my small tribute to Dr. Harding. Setting aside a college professor or two and half a dozen dipsomaniacal newspaper reporters, he takes the first place in my Valhalla of literati. That is, he writes the worst English that I have ever encountered. It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of the dark abysm [...] of pish, and crawls insanely up to the topmost pinnacle of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash. --H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (18801956) American journalist and literary critic. "Baltimore Evening Sun" [7 March 1921], in a critique of Warren G. Harding's Inaugural Address of 4 March. The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots. --H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (18801956) American journalist and literary critic. _Notes on Democracy_ [1926] - According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that seem right? That means to the average person, if you have to go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy. --Jerry Seinfeld (b. 1954) American actor, writer, and comedian. _SeinLanguage_ [1993] - For a fortnight, 24 women and 22 men kept diaries of how often they engaged in various forms of sex. Then they underwent a stress test involving public speaking and performing mental arithmetic out loud. Volunteers who had had penetrative intercourse were found to be the least stressed, and their blood pressure returned to normal faster than those who had engaged in other forms of sexual activity such as masturbation. [...] Dr Brody found that the effect remained even after taking differences in personality and other health-related factors into account. --"Sex cuts public speaking stress.", _BBC_ [26 January 2006] ----- rostrum (noun) 1. Platform for public speaking: a platform or raised area where somebody stands to address an audience. 2. Music conductors platform: a platform on a stage or in front of an orchestra where the conductor stands. . . see: "ACTORS" see: "FAME" All publicity is good, except an obituary notice. --Brendan Behan (19231964) Irish poet, novelist, and playwright. Quoted in "Sunday Express" (London) [5 January 1964]. I don't care what you say about me, as long as you say *something* about me, and as long as you spell my name right. --George M. Cohan (18781942) American songwriter, dramatist, and producer. In John McCabe, _George M. Cohan: The Man Who Owned Broadway_, ch. 13 [1973]. ^^ Clergymen across the United States denounced Sarah Bernhardt from their pulpits as the 'whore of Babylon', thereby assuring massive attendance at her performances. The Episcopalian bishop of Chicago having delivered a particularly effective piece of publicity, Bernhardt arranged for her agent to send him a note and a bank draft. 'Your Excellency,' the note read, 'I am accustomed, when I bring an attraction to your town, to spend $400 on advertising. As you have done half the advertising for me, I herewith enclose $200 for your parish.' --Edward Leeson _The Folio Book of Humorous Anecdotes_ [2005] "Church and Clergy" ^^ Remember when what is now called publicity was called public shame and humiliation? --attributed to P.J. O'Rourke (b. 1947) American political satirist. Democratic nations must try to find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend. --Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925) British conservative stateswoman and Prime Minister [1979-90]. Speech to the American Bar Association, London [July 1985]. . . see: "JOURNALISM" for related links see: "KNOWLEDGE" for related links The poem will please if it is lively if it is stupid it will fail but I will have none of your damned cutting and slashing. --Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (17881824) English Romantic poet and satirist. Letter to his publisher John Murray [6 April 1819]. There are three difficulties in authorship; to write any thing worth the publishing to find honest men to publish it and to get sensible men to read it. --C.C. Colton (17801832) English clergyman and writer. _Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words_, "Preface" [1821 ed.] However one may sing the praises of those who by their virtue either defend or increase the glory of their country, their actions only affect worldly prosperity, and within narrow limits. But the man who sets fallen learning on its feet (and this is almost more difficult than to originate it in the first place) is building up a sacred and immortal thing, and serving not one province alone but all peoples and all generations. Once this was the task of princes, and it was the greatest glory of Ptolemy. But his library was contained between the narrow walls of its own house, and Aldus is building up a library which has no other limits than the world itself. --Desiderius Erasmus (14691536) Dutch humanist and theologian. Praising the Aldine Press, the first modern publishing house; quoted in Daniel J. Boorstin _The Discoverers_ [1983]. If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed. --Benjamin Franklin (17061790) American politician, inventor, and scientist. Quoted in Carl Van Doren _Benjamin Franklin_ [1945 ed.]. Being published by the Oxford University Press is rather like being married to a duchess: the honour is almost greater than the pleasure. --G. M. Young (18821959) English historian. Quoted in Rupert Hart-Davis letter to George Lyttelton [29 April 1956]. ;void(0)) PULCHRITUDE . . see: "BEAUTY" see: "THE BODY" A pretty girl is like a melody That haunts you night and day, Just like the strain of a haunting refrain, She'll start upon a marathon And run around your brain. --Irving Berlin (18881989) American songwriter. "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody" [1919 song] - It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window. --Raymond Chandler (18881959) American writer of detective fiction. _Farewell, My Lovely_, ch. 13 [1940] I let go of her wrists, closed the door with my elbow and slid past her. It was like the first time. 'You ought to to carry insurance on those,' I said. --Raymond Chandler (18881959) American writer of detective fiction. _The Little Sister_ [1949] - And not a girl goes walking Along the Cotswold lanes But knows men's eyes in April Are quicker than their brains. --John Drinkwater (18821937) English poet and dramatist. "Cotswold Love" It is no use to blame the looking glass if your face is awry. --Nikolai Gogol (18091852) Russian writer. _The Inspector-General_ [1836] I'm tired of all this business about beauty being only skin-deep. That's deep enough. What do you want an adorable pancreas? --Jean Kerr (19232003) American writer, [wife of Walter Kerr]. "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall" in _The Snake Has All the Lines_ [1958] - If I were a woman I should want to be a blonde, with golden, silky hair, pink cheeks and sky-blue eyes. It would not bother me to think that this color scheme was mistaken by the world for a flaunting badge of stupidity; I would have a better arm in my arsenal than mere intelligence; I would get a husband by easy surrender while the brunettes attempted it vainly by frontal assault. Men are not easily taken by frontal assault; it is only stratagem that can quickly knock them down. To be a blonde, pink, soft and delicate, is to be a stratagem. It is to be a ruse, a feint, an ambush. It is to fight under the Red Cross flag. A man sees nothing alert and designing in those pale, crystalline eyes; he sees only something helpless, childish, weak; something that calls to his compassion; somthing that appeals powerfully to his conceit in his own strength. And so he is taken before he knows that there is a war. He lifts his porticullis in Christian charity and the enemy is in his citadel. The brunette can make no such stealthy and sure attack. No matter how subtle her art, she can never hope to quite conceal her intent. Her eyes give her away. They flash and glitter. They have depths. They draw the male gaze into mysterious and sinister recesses. And so the male behind the gaze flies to arms. He may be taken in the end indeed, he usually is but he is not taken by surprise; he is not taken without a fight. A brunette has to battle for every inch of her advance. She is confronted by an endless succession of Dead Man's Hills, each equipped with telescopes, semaphores, alarm gongs, wireless. The male sees her clearly through her densest smoke-clouds [...] But the blonde captures him under a flag of truce. He regards her tenderly, kindly, almost pityingly, until the moment the gyves are upon his wrists. --H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (18801956) American journalist and literary critic. "A Footnote on the Duel of Sex" in _Damn! A Book of Calumny_ [1918]. - Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul. --Alexander Pope (16881744) English poet. _The Rape of the Lock_, canto V, l. 34 [1712] Then she shakes off the bitter web she wove And turns to set the mirror, gently, face down by the stove. She gathers up her apron in her hand, Pours a cup of coffee, drips Carnation from the can, And thinks ahead to Friday, 'cause Friday will be fine! She'll look up in that weathered face that loves hers, line for line, To see that maiden shining in his eyes And laugh at how her mirror tells her lies. --Stan Rogers (19491983) Canadian folk musician and composer. "Lies" song in 1981 album _Northwest Passage_. "Goodbye," said the fox. "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." --Antoine de Saint-Exupιry (19001944) French novelist. _The Little Prince_ [1943] Brains are never a handicap to a girl if she hides them under a see-through blouse. --attributed to Bobby Vinton (b. 1935) American singer. She was pretty as a girl in an early Charlie Chaplin movie, with that same blank look of sexy idiocy on her face. It was as if she was born to go round with subtitles: "Help me! Save me!" --Fay Weldon (b. 1931) British novelist. _The Heart of the Country_ [1987] It is better to be looked over than overlooked. --Mae West (18931980) American stage and film actress. Quoted in Joseph Weintraub _The Wit and Wisdom of Mae West_ [1967]. Ain't she sweet? See her coming down the street! Now I ask you very confidentially, Ain't she sweet? Ain't she nice? Look her over once or twice. Now I ask you very confidentially, Ain't she sweet? --Jack Yellen (18921991) Polish-born American songwriter. "Ain't She Sweet?" [1927 song] - She has curves in places other women don't even have places. --"Hee-Haw", (television show) ;void(0)) PUNCTUALITY . . see: "COURTESY" see: "TIME" for other related links Yogi Berra, former Yankee star and manager, has a habit of not being on time for appointments. Usually, he's about a half-hour late. One time he showed up only 15 minutes behind schedule. Proudly he proclaimed, "This is the earliest I've ever been late." --From "The American Legion Magazine" [1999]. Haste turns usually upon a matter of ten minutes too late, and may be avoided by a habit like that of Lord Nelson, to which he ascribed his success in life, of being ten minutes too early. --Christian Nestell Bovee (18201904) American writer. _Intuitions and Summaries of Thought_ [2 vols. 1862] "Habits" [The White Rabbit speaking:] Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late! --Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (18321898) English writer and logician. _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_, ch. I [1865] If I have made an appointment with you, I owe you punctuality; I have no right to throw away your time, if I do my own. --Richard Cecil (17481810) English clergyman. Attributed in Everard Berkeley (ed.) _The World's Laconics..._, p. 230 [1853]. The only way of catching a train I have ever discovered is to miss the train before. --G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton (18741936) English essayist, novelist, and poet. _Tremendous Trifles_ [1909] I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one object at a time. --Charles Dickens (18121870) English novelist. _David Copperfield_, ch. 42 [1850] Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. --T.H. (Thomas Henry) Huxley (18251895) English biologist; grandfather of Aldous Huxley.. "Technical Education", an Address to the Working Men's Club, London, as quoted in _Select Works of Thomas H. Huxley_ [John Alden, N.Y., 1886]. After a commissioner arrived late for a meeting, Fiorello La Guardia sent him an article from a magazine about a Japanese official who had missed an appointment and been so ashamed that he committed suicide. A penciled mayoral note said, 'That is class.' --H. Paul Jeffers _The Napolean of New York_ [2002] I owe all my success in life to having been always a quarter of an hour beforehand. --Horatio Nelson (17581805) British naval commander. In Elbert Hubbard comp., _Elbert Hubbard's Scrap Book_ [1923]. Now or never was the time. --Laurence Sterne (17131768) English novelist. _Tristram Shandy_ [1760] Keeping another person waiting is a basic tactic for defining him as inferior and oneself as superior. --Thomas Szasz (b. 1920) American psychiatrist. "Social Relations" in _The Second Sin_ [1973]. [Of Marilyn Monroe's tardiness:] My Aunt Minnie would always be punctual and never hold up production, but who would pay to see my Aunt Minnie? --Billy Wilder (19062002) Austrian-born American film director and screenwriter. Quoted in P.F. Boller & R.L. Davis _Hollywood Anecdotes_ [1988]. - The early bird would never catch the worm if the dumb worm slept late. --anon.  PUNCTUATION . . see: "LANGUAGE" for related links ^ Victor Hugo (18021885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist. When Victor Hugo wanted to know what his publishers thought of the manuscript of _Les Misιrables_, he sent them a note reading simply: '?' They replied: '!' --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.] ^ In writing essays, there are two things one has difficulty with spelling and stops. Nearly everybody says it is the spelling that matters. Now spelling is one of the decencies of life, like the proper use of knives and forks. It looks slovenly and nasty if you spell wrongly, like trying to eat your soup with a fork. But, intellectually, spelling English spelling does not matter. Shakespeare spelt his own name at least four different ways, and it may have puzzled his cashiers at the bank. Intellectually, stops matter a great deal. If you are getting your commas, semi-colons, and full-stops wrong, it means that you are not getting your thoughts right, and your mind is muddled. --William Temple (18811944) English theologian and Archbishop. Speech at the Royal Infant Orphanage in Wanstead [22 October 1938]. - Dear Jack, I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart. I can be forever happy will you let me be yours? Jill Dear Jack I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men I yearn. For you I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart I can be forever happy. Will you let me be? Yours, Jill --Lynne Truss, _Eats, Shoots & Leaves_ [2003] - Woman, without her man, is nothing. Woman! Without her, man is nothing. --unknown author end page | PACIFISM - PAIN | PAINTING - PARENTING | PARIS - PASSPORTS | PAST (THE) - PATRIOTISM | PEACE - PERCENTAGES | PEOPLE | PERCEPTIONS - PERSUASION | PESSIMISM - PHILOSOPHY | PHONIES - PHYSICS | PIANO - PLANS | PLACES | PLANTS - POETRY | POISON - POLITICAL PARTIES | POLITICS & POLITICIANS (PAGE 1 A - L) | POLITICS & POLITICIANS (PAGE 2 M - Z) | POLLS - POPE JOHN PAUL II | POPEYE - POTENTIAL | POVERTY | POWER | PRACTICALITY - PRAYER | PREACHERS - PREPARED (BE) | PRESENT (THE) - (THE) PRESS | PRETENSION - PRIVACY | PROBLEMS - PROGRESSIVES | PROGRESS - PROPAGANDA | PROPOSALS - PUBLIC (THE) | PUBLIC OPINION - PUNCTUATION | PUNISHMENT - PURPOSE | QUALITIES - QUIPS | QUIRKS - QUOTATIONS | | 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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