Public Opinion Quotes - Page 6

• When men exercise their reason coolly and freely, on a variety of distinct questions, they inevitably fall into different opinions, on some of them. When they are governed by a common passion, their opinions if they are so to be called, will be the same.

  James Madison

  Fall, Passion, Exercise

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.237

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• Experience having long taught me the reasonableness of mutual sacrifices of opinion among those who are to act together for any common object, and the expediency of doing what good we can; when we cannot do all we would wish.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Sacrifice, Long, Wish

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson”

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• Thea was still under the belief that public opinion could be placated; that if you clucked often enough, the hens would mistake you for one of themselves.

  Willa Cather

  Mistake, Thinking, Hens

  Willa Cather (2013). “The Best of Willa Cather”, p.265, Simon and Schuster

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• I am convinced that those societies (such as the Native American peoples) which live without government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under the European governments. Among the former, public opinion is in the place of law, & restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did anywhere. Among the latter, under pretence of governing they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves & sheep. I do not exaggerate.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Native American, Sheep, Government

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• The court follows elite opinion, not public opinion. And Democratic leaders in Congress and Republican leaders in Congress follow elite opinion as well. It's what I've called "the Washington cartel." It's career politicians in both parties. It is lobbyists and giant corporations.

  Ted Cruz

  Party, Careers, Leader

  Source: www.npr.org

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• The court doesn't follow public opinion. The court's views are radically out of step with public opinion.

  Ted Cruz

  Views, Steps, Court

  Interview with Steve Inskeep, www.npr.org. June 29, 2015.

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• What I and other commentators do is attempt to move the public opinion. We try to change minds.

  Ann Coulter

  Moving, Mind, Trying

  "Ann Coulter: The "Never Trust a Liberal over 3" Interview". Interview with Kam Williams, m.thetimesweekly.com. November 20, 2013.

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• Let us not confuse objectives with methods. Too many so-called leaders of the nation fail to see the forest because of the trees. Too many of them fail to recognize the vital necessity of planning for definite objectives. True leadership calls for the setting forth of the objectives and the rallying of public opinion in support of these objectives.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Wisdom, Support, Tree

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• Economic freedom is in our eyes a good. It is among the highest of temporal goods because it is necessary to the highest life of society through the dignity of man and through the multiplicity of his action, in which multiplicity is life. Through well-divided property alone can the units of society react upon the State. Through it alone can a public opinion flourish. Only where the bulk of the cells are healthy can the whole organism thrive.

  Hilaire Belloc

  Eye, Men, Cells

  Hilaire Belloc (2002). “An Essay on the Restoration of Property”, p.26, IHS Press

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• All Governments rest mainly on public opinion, and to that of his own subjects every wise Sovereign will look. The opinion of his subjects will force a Sovereign to do his duty, and by that opinion will he be exalted or depressed in the politics of the world.

  Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon

  Wise, Government, Looks

  Trial of John Vint and others, 27 How. St. Tr. 640, 1799.

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• Greeks have to know that they are not alone ... Those who are fighting for the survivor of Greece inside the Euro area are deeply harmed by the impression floating around in the Greek public opinion that Greece is a victim. Greece is a member of the EU and the euro. I want Greece to be a constructive member of the Union because the EU is also benefiting from Greece.

  Jean-Claude Juncker

  Fighting, Greek, Floating

  Source: marketnews.com

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• Fritzsche, radio propaganda chief, by manipulation of the truth goaded German public opinion into frenzied support of the regime and anesthetized the independent judgment of the population so that they did without question their masters' bidding.

  Hans Fritzsche

  Independent, Support, Population

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• We've seen in terms of the reaction to some proposals in the Budget already how resistant that public opinion is to, first of all, a public comprehension of the new paradigm in which we have to operate; and secondly, to the rationale for the decisions that we're taking and the reason for those decisions to be implemented and followed through.

  Brian Cowen

  Decision, Rationale, Comprehension

  Speech at the First Business Roundtable with the Government of Ireland, the Conrad Hotel, Dublin, www.taoiseach.gov.ie. October 30, 2008.

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• Although objectively greater demands are placed on this authority, it operates less as a public opinion giving a rational foundation to the exercise of political and social authority, the more it is generated for the purpose of an abstract vote that amounts to no more than an act of acclamation within a public sphere temporarily manufactured for show or manipulation.

  Jurgen Habermas

  Exercise, Giving, Political

  "The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere". Book by Jürgen Habermas, 1962.

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• No policy that does not rest upon some philosophical public opinion can be permanently maintained.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Philosophical, Doe, Policy

  Abraham Lincoln (2008). “The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln”, p.17, Wildside Press LLC

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• Sound conviction should influence us rather than public opinion.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Sound, Influence, Conviction

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• He never sought to stem the current. [Of a statesman who accommodates his views to public opinion.]

  Juvenal

  Views, Currents, Stem

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• In my life right now, in my music, and just overall I feel like I'm winning. It doesn't matter what this person is saying or what the charts are saying or what award shows are saying, the public opinion doesn't matter. I feel like I'm winning in my spirit.

  Brandy Norwood

  Winning, Awards, Matter

  Source: www.popsugar.com

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• I do believe that the buck stops here, that I cannot rely upon public opinion polls to tell me what is right.

  Gerald R. Ford

  Believe, Rely Upon, Bucks

  Address to the Nation Pardoning Richard M. Nixon, delivered on September 8, 1974, Washington D.C.

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• public opinion, the sum of private opinions, does matter, can matter often for good.

  Sybille Bedford

  Doe, Matter, Opinion

  Sybille Bedford (2017). “A Favourite of the Gods and A Compass Error”, p.280, New York Review of Books

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• the heaviest restriction upon the freedom of public opinion is not the official censorship of the Press, but the unofficial censorship by a Press which exists not so much to express opinion as to manufacture it.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Media, Journalism, Censorship

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• Public opinion, - a tyrant, sitting in the dark, wrapt up in mystification and vague terrors of obscurity; deriving power no one knows from whom ... - but irresistible in its power to quell thought, to repress action, to silence conviction.

  Harriet Martineau

  Dark, Tyrants, Silence

  Harriet Martineau (1837). “Society in America”, p.138

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• Public opinion which, to be sure, can at times be helpful, must never for an instant swerve us from what we know in our heart we are trying to convey. For honesty is the great requisite of art. If we remain honest with ourselves, art, which is always there, never lets us down.

  Cornelia Otis Skinner

  Art, Honesty, Trying

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• Whatever may be the temporary applause of men, or the expressions of public opinion, it may be asserted without fear of contradiction, that no true and permanent fame can be founded, except in labors which promote the happiness of mankind.

  Charles Sumner

  Men, Expression, May

  Charles Sumner (1850). “Orations and Speeches [1845-1850]”, p.332

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• Politicians have responsibility to act if the public opinion changes. Flooding, storms, droughts are all getting people talking about climate change. I wonder if someday Atlanta will run out of water?

  David Titley

  Running, Responsibility, Atlanta

  Source: www.slate.com

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