272 Opinion Quotes

A man who has made up his mind on a given subject twenty-five years ago and continues to hold his political opinions after he has been proved to be wrong is a man of principle; while he who from time to time adapts his opinions to the changing circumstances of life is an opportunist.

I think there are many times when it would be most efficient to use nuclear weapons. However, the public opinion in this country and throughout the world throw up their hands in horror when you mention nuclear weapons, just because of the propaganda that's been fed to them.

Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.

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 analyze yourself. Give the relevant facts and let your readers make their own judgments. Stick to your story. It is not the most important subject in history but it is one about which you are uniquely qualified to speak.

The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects, in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusions may remain inviolate.

I have just returned from Boston. It is the only sane thing to do if you find yourself up there.

Where humor is concerned there are no standards - no one can say what is good or bad, although you can be sure that everyone will.

He who loves is not ashamed before men of what he does for God, neither does he hide it through shame though the whole world should condemn it.

I am far more provoked at being thought foolish by foolish people, than pleased at being thought sensible by sensible people; and the average proportion of the numbers of each is not to my advantage.

To think that because those who wield power in society wield in the end that of government, therefore it is of no use to attempt to influence the constitution of the government by acting on opinion, is to forget that opinion is itself one of the greatest active social forces. One person with a belief is a social power equal to ninety-nine who have only interests.

Stupidity is much the same all the world over. A stupid person's notions and feelings may confidently be inferred from those which prevail in the circle by which the person is surrounded. Not so with those whose opinions and feelings are an emanation from their own nature and faculties.

I had learnt from experience that many false opinions may be exchanged for true ones, without in the least altering the habits of mind of which false opinions are made.

Experience has taught me that those who give their time to the absorbing claims of what is called society, not having leisure to keep up a large acquaintance with the organs of opinion, remain much more ignorant of the general state either of the public mind, or of the active and instructed part of it, than a recluse who reads the newspapers need be.

We shall always keep a spare corner in our heads to give passing hospitality to our friends' opinion.

My position has always been that there's two types of people opposed to pornography: those who don't know what they're talking about, and those who don't know what they're missing.

Nietzsche was stupid and abnormal.

My great comfort is, that the temporary celebrity I have wrung from the world has been in the very teeth of all opinions and prejudices. I have flattered no ruling powers; I have never concealed a single thought that tempted me.

He had only one vanity; he thought he could give advice better than any other person.

The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.

In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination.

I don't necessarily agree with everything I say.

It is not the facts which guide the conduct of men, but their opinions about facts; which may be entirely wrong. We can only make them right by discussion.

The State, in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their opinions. If they be willing faithfully to serve it, that satisfies.

Read as little as possible of literary criticism - such things are either partisan opinions, which have become petrified and meaningless, hardened and empty of life, or else they are just clever word-games, in which one view wins today, and tomorrow the opposite view. Works of art are of an infinite solitude, and no means of approach is so useless as criticism.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

Anyone will be glad to admit that he knows nothing about beagling, or the Chinese stock market, or ballistics, but there is not a man or woman alive who does not claim to know how to cure hiccoughs.

In the Islamic government all people have complete freedom to have any kind of opinion.

Wind buffs up empty bladders; opinion, fools.

I picture several reviewers of my own books as passing a long future lodged between Brutus and Judas in the jaws of Satan.

There's probably no subject with quite so many conflictin' opinions about it as there are about food, and 'tis better to swap bubble gum with a rabid bulldog than challenge a single one o' the varyin' beliefs your average human holds about nutrition.

A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities.

Men of integrity are generally pretty obstinate, in adhering to an opinion once adopted.

If you are a religious apologist invited to debate Christopher Hitchens, decline.

God this stuff isn't getting to me - the shootings, the knifings, the beatings. Old ladies being bashed in the head for their social security checks. Nah that doesn't bother me. But you know what does bother me? You know what makes me really sick to my stomach? It's watching you stuff your face with those hotdogs! Nobody - I mean nobody puts ketchup on a hot dog!

O just ones, hear me! You cannot condemn this man, monkey or parrot for saying that the moon is the world he comes from. If he is a man, all men are free. Is he then not free to imagine what he wants, even if he does not come from the moon? Can you force him to have only your visions? Impossible! You may make him say that he believes that the moon is not a world, but still he will not believe it. To believe something, one must imagine that it is more probable than not. Unless you show him what is probable or he realizes it himself, he may tell you that he believes and yet he will not believe.

'Osama Bin Laden is a fucking cunt. Imagine what it would be like to be him and wake up outside his little tent or cave and see an army getting ready to beat his ass.'

Interviewer: Why rabbits? Davey: Why not?

Many people tell me that my poetry is awful. And, for the life of me, I can't decide if they are right, or just stupid.

It is not good for our efforts at self-realization to know the opinions other people have of us. It is difficult or perhaps impossible to be ourselves if we are known.

'The modern world stinks.'

I feared that such a prize, as I believe is true of the activities of some of the great scientific foundations, would tend to accentuate the swings of scientific fashion. This apprehension the selection committee has brilliantly refuted by awarding the prize to one whose views are as unfashionable as mine are.

It is only because the majority opinion will always be opposed by some that our knowledge and understanding progress. In the process by which opinion is formed, it is very probable that, by the time any view becomes a majority view, it is no longer the best view: somebody will already have advanced beyond the point which the majority have reached. It is because we do not yet which of the many competing new opinions will prove itself the best that we wait until it has gained sufficient support.

Don't judge a man by the tales of others.

One feels of him that there was much he did not understand, but not that there was anything that he was frightened of saying or thinking. I have never been able to feel much liking for Gandhi, but I do not feel sure that as a political thinker he was wrong in the main, nor do I believe that his life was a failure.

The only thing I know for certain is that they are bad people.

I wish to deal with my most distinguished contemporaries, not personally or in a merely literary manner, but in relation to the real body of doctrine which they teach. I am not concerned with Mr. Rudyard Kipling as a vivid artist or a vigorous personality; I am concerned with him as a Heretic - that is to say, a man whose view of things has the hardihood to differ from mine. I am not concerned with Mr. Bernard Shaw as one of the most brilliant and one of the most honest men alive; I am concerned with him as a Heretic - that is to say, a man whose philosophy is quite solid, quite coherent, and quite wrong.

'I'm not a <INSERT PROFESSION HERE>, but I'm a thinker...'

Because they were idiots!

I'll ha'e nae hauf-way hoose, but aye be whaur Extremes meet - it's the only way I ken To dodge the curst conceit o' bein' richt That damns the vast majority o' men.

For me he's just a hoax. It's empty. It's not interesting. It's dead. Citizen Kane, which I have a copy of - is all the critics' darling, always at the top of every poll taken, but I think it's a total bore. Above all, the performances are worthless. The amount of respect that movie's got is absolutely unbelievable.

Gentlemen of the Convention, your present temper may not mark the healthful pulse of our people. When your enthusiasm has passed, when the emotions of this hour have subsided, we shall find below the storm and passion that calm level of public opinion from which the thoughts of a mighty people are to be measured, and by which final action will be determined.

I thought to myself, 'This is Harvard', You expect Harvard to be this stuffy, arrogant place. But then you get here and see how bright everyone is - what could be better? I loved it.

'I've had better.' (Liar Liar) (after having sex with one of his law partners)

Odyous of olde been comparisonis.

Here's an oldie which I always enjoy, you probably loathe it, I don't know, don't really care. It's my programme, not yours.

(On the ridiculousness of choosing a best band ever) It's like saying which is better; Tuesday or a piece of string?

We are not so absurd as to propose that the teacher should not set forth his own opinions as the true ones and exert his utmost powers to exhibit their truth in the strongest light. To abstain from this would be to nourish the worst intellectual habit of all, that of not finding, and not looking for, certainty in any teacher. But the teacher himself should not be held to any creed; nor should the question be whether his own opinions are the true ones, but whether he is well instructed in those of other people, and, in enforcing his own, states the arguments for all conflicting opinions fairly.

The likings and dislikings of society, or of some powerful portion of it, are thus the main thing which has practically determined the rules laid down for general observance, under the penalties of law or opinion. And in general, those who have been in advance of society in thought and feeling, have left this condition of things unassailed in principle, however they may have come into conflict with it in some of its details. They have occupied themselves rather in inquiring what things society ought to like or dislike, than in questioning whether its likings or dislikings should be a law to individuals. They preferred endeavouring to alter the feelings of mankind on the particular points on which they were themselves heretical, rather than make common cause in defence of freedom, with heretics generally. (p. 12)

Wherever the sentiment of the majority is still genuine and intense, it is found to have abated little of its claim to be obeyed. (p. 13)

The usefulness of an opinion is itself matter of opinion. (p. 30)

The end and aim of the Cynic philosophy, as indeed of every philosophy, is happiness, but happiness that consists in living according to nature, and not according to the opinions of the multitude.

I'm always right. This time I'm just even more right than usual.

Loathsome, repulsive in almost every way.

You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I'll tell you what his 'pinions is.

I personally regard Chomsky as a kook and a half on toast. --Jimmy Wales, December 8, 2001 [260]

We seem to assume that if only someone could find the cure for our disease, some new plan, we should at once see that it was the cure and apply it. We ask for leaders and leadership. But if the right course, which the leader indicates, is regarded by the multitudes sincerely as the wrong one, they will declare that he is no leader but a misleader. Inevitably in a democracy the leader is he who expresses existing convictions in the most vivid way, who possesses, as someone puts it, 'the common mind to an uncommon degree'.

Some will hate you for telling them, but some will be glad for it.

Now ... for what it's worth.

Opinions offensive are of two sorts: some savoring of impiety, and some of incivility. Against the first, Christ Jesus never called for the sword of steel to help the sword of the spirit, that two-edged sword that comes out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus... The second sort, to wit, opinions of incivility, doubtless the opinions as well as practices are the proper object of the civil sword...

It was worse than taking poison.

Screw the world. Do you really think we ought to govern ourselves based on what the world thinks of us?

I know these people like I know every square inch of my glorious naked body.

Constitutional statutes ... which embody the settled public opinion of the people who enacted them and whom they are to govern - can always be enforced. But if they embody only the sentiments of a bare majority, pronounced under the influence of a temporary excitement, they will, if strenuously opposed, always fail of their object; nay, they are likely to injure the cause they are framed to advance.

I like everything. You know everything? I like it. You know all books? I like them all.

Just as a vagrant accused of stealing a carrot from a field stands before a comfortably seated judge who keeps up an elegant flow of queries, comments and witticisms while the accused is unable to stammer a word, so truth stands before an intelligence which is concerned with the elegant manipulation of opinions. [p.68]

I could never divide myself from any man upon the difference of an opinion, or be angry with his judgement for not agreeing with me in that, from which perhaps within a few days I should dissent myself.

Well, I thought it was funny.

Without question, Steve is the best Broadway lyricist, past or present.

The Public is an old woman. Let her maunder and mumble.

Disregard public opinion when it interferes with your duty.

I care not a straw for the opinions of the world.

Lolita is a fine book, a distinguished book - all right then - a great book.

Le prejuge est une opinion sans jugement.

Opinion is not worth a rush.

The defects of his strength grow on him. All black is very black, all white very white.

There were some black nationalists who argued that blacks should not be fighting in a white man's war, that Hitler didn't do anything to blacks, so why should blacks be involved in this war? But that was a minority view among a small group of black nationalists.

I have absolutely no right to express my opinions until I know all of the answers.

I do not endorse them [Landmark Education] - never have. The SOBs have already sued me once. I'm afraid to tell you what I really think about them because I'm not covered by any lawyers like I was when I wrote my book.

Say anything just to have an opinion.

... for Englishmen never will be slaves: they are free to do whatever the Government and public opinion allows them to do.

I'm finished with the old chess, it's rotten to the core

They are jealous of me in every way! They're jealous of my talent, they're jealous of my looks, they're jealous of my potency, they're jealous of my chess! They're just jealous bastards. They are ugly, they are jealous...I was over in Israel, I went to a change room a few times. I saw their penises...they are pitiful, they are small, they are just...dry, you know, all of them circumsized. Just very sad. I understand they're jealous.