Public Opinion Quotes - Page 8

• The Soviet Union's propaganda clearly wishes to use public opinion in this country to get the West to reduce its own arms while doing nothing themselves. In this way they would gain nuclear superiority. This is simply not on.

  James Callaghan

  Country, Wish, Use

  James Callaghan's speech at Cardiff (May 25, 1983), as quoted in "Callaghan defends deterrent" by Tim Jones in The Times (p. 1), May 26, 1983.

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• I understand perfectly well why the Catholic Church preaches against abortion. But it shouldn't be the purpose of the Catholic Church to prevent non-Catholics from having abortions if they feel that abortions are morally acceptable. They can certainly only argue for what they believe to be right in the court of public opinion and try to persuade people.

  Andrew Solomon

  Believe, People, Abortion

  Source: andrewsolomon.com

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• This is our right [to vote]. I urge people to come out. This hasn't - you know, the courts of law have refused to take this up in a just way. This needs to be decided in the court of public opinion.

  Jill Stein

  Law, People, Needs

  Source: www.politico.com

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• The task of the political philosopher can only be to influence public opinion, not to organize people for action. He will do so effectively only if he is not concerned with what is now politically possible but consistently defends the "general principles which are always the same." In this sense I doubt whether there can be such a thing as a conservative political philosophy. Conservatism may often be a useful practical maxim, but it does not give us any guiding principles which can influence long-range developments.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Philosophy, Guiding Principles, Often Is

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Postscript: Why I Am Not a Conservative, 1960.

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• Based on current surveys of public opinion in the United States, it turns out that the majority of Americans think I've done a pretty good job.

  Barack Obama

  Jobs, Thinking, Majority

  "2016 Press Conference with President Barack Obama". awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu. November 17, 2016.

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• We are a democracy, and there is only one way to get a democracy on its feet in the matter of its individual, its social, its municipal, its State, its National conduct, and that is by keeping the public informed about what is going on.There isnot a crime, there isnot a dodge, there is not a trick, there is not a swindle, there is not a vice which does not live by secrecy.Get these things out in the open, describe them, attack them, ridicule them in the press, and sooner or later public opinion will sweep them away.

  Joseph Pulitzer

  Feet, Democracy, Vices

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• Public opinion always wants easy money, that is, low interest rates.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Money, Want, Easy

  "A Critique of Interventionism". Book by Ludwig von Mises, p. 163, 1929.

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• Unless you're willing to fight and refight the same battles until you go blue in the face, drive the people you work with nuts going over every detail to make certain you've got it right, and then take hit after unfair hit accusing you of bias, there's no use even trying. You have to love it, and I do. You just hope it strikes a spark somewhere in the critical mass of public opinion and helps some people to resist further the seductions of political and corporate advertising.

  Bill Moyers

  Fighting, Nuts, Blue

  Source: progressive.org

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• Active liberty is particularly at risk when law restricts speech directly related to the shaping of public opinion, for example, speech that takes place in areas related to politics and policy-making by elected officials. That special risk justifies especially strong pro-speech judicial presumptions. It also justifies careful review whenever the speech in question seeks to shape public opinion, particularly if that opinion in turn will affect the political process and the kind of society in which we live.

  Stephen Breyer

  Strong, Policy Making, Law

  "Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution". Book by Stephen Breyer, 2008.

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• We set up government by consent of the governed, and the Bill of Rights denies those in power any legal opportunity to coerce that consent. Authority here is to be controlled by public opinion, not public opinion by authority.

  Robert H. Jackson

  Opportunity, Rights, Government

  "West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette 319 U.S. 641". Judicial opinion, 1943.

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• To try to regulate the internal affairs of a family, the relations of love or friendship, or many other things of the same sort, by law or by the coercion of public opinion, is like trying to pull an eyelash out of a man's eye with a pair of tongs. They may put out the eye, but they will never get hold of the eyelash

  James Fitzjames Stephen

  Eye, Men, Law

  Sir James Fitzjames Stephen (1874). “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, p.177

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• To be independent of public opinion is the first formal condition of achieving anything great or rational whether in life or in science. Great achievement is assured, however, of subsequent recognition and grateful acceptance by public opinion, which in due course will make it one of its own prejudices

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

  Grateful, Independent, Acceptance

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1945). “Hegel's Philosophy of right”

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• In America there is not one single element of civilization that is not made to depend, in the end, upon public opinion.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Civilization, America, Elements

  Henry Ward Beecher (1863). “Freedom and War: Discourses on Topics Suggested by the Times”, p.253, Gale Cengage Learning

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• To spread healthy ideas among even the lowest classes of people, to remove men from the influence of prejudice and passion, to make reason the arbiter and supreme guide of public opinion; that is the essential goal of the sciences; that is how science will contribute to the advancement of civilization, and that is what deserves protection of governments who want to insure the stability of their power.

  Georges Cuvier

  Passion, Men, Civilization

  "Rapport historique sur les progrès des sciences naturelles depuis 1789, et sur leur état actuel". Book edited by Georges Cuvier (translated), 1810.

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• There is one characteristic of the present direction of public opinion, peculiarly calculated to make it intolerant of any marked demonstration of individuality. The general average of mankind are not only moderate in intellect, but also moderate in inclinations: they have no tastes or wishes strong enough to incline them to do anything unusual, and they consequently do not understand those who have, and class all such with the wild and intemperate whom they are accustomed to look down upon.

  John Stuart Mill

  Strong, Average, Class

  John Stuart Mill (1989). “J. S. Mill: 'On Liberty' and Other Writings”, p.69, Cambridge University Press

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• Our union rests upon public opinion, and can never be cemented by the blood of its citizens shed in civil war.

  James Buchanan

  War, Blood, History

  James Buchanan (2006). “State of the Union Addresses”, p.279, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• I try not to read newspapers when I have a movie coming out, but I guess I'm not immune to public opinion. I'm hurt by it.

  Anna Faris

  Hurt, Trying, Coming Out

  Interview with Scott Tobias, film.avclub.com. April 7, 2009.

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• . . . if I had been a man, self-respect, family pressure and the public opinion of my class would have pushed me into a money-making profession; as a mere woman I could carve out a career of disinterested research.

  Beatrice Webb

  Men, Class, Careers

  Beatrice Webb, Beatrice Potter Webb (1979). “My Apprenticeship”, p.355, Cambridge University Press

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• For public opinion does not admit that lofty rapturous laughter is worthy to stand beside lofty lyrical emotion and that there isall the difference in the world between it and the antics of a clown at a fair.

  Nikolai Gogol

  Laughter, Differences, Doe

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• And fourthly there is a major shift in public opinion and attitude to accommodate to the post-9/11 mentality and the Bush administration's penchant for secrecy. I think the public has simply become increasingly accustomed to being turned away from vital information and is protesting less and less. You have some squeaky wheels out there, but I don't think they're representative of the population at large.

  Ted Gup

  Attitude, Thinking, Population

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• It isn't polls or public opinion at the moment that counts. It is right and wrong and leadership--men with fortitude, honesty, and a belief in the right that makes epochs in the history of the world.

  Harry S. Truman

  Honesty, Men, World

  Harry S. Truman, Robert H. Ferrell (1997). “Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman”, p.310, University of Missouri Press

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• Public opinion is a courtesan, whom we seek to please without respecting.

  Jean Antoine Petit-Senn

  Popularity, Please, Courtesans

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• The most absurd public opinion polls are those on taxes. Now, if there is one thing we know about taxes, it is that people do not want to pay them. If they wanted to pay them, there would be no need for taxes. People would gladly figure out how much of their money that the government deserves and send it in. And yet we routinely hear about opinion polls that reveal that the public likes the tax level as it is and might even like it higher. Next they will tell us that the public thinks the crime rate is too low, or that the American people would really like to be in more auto accidents.

  Llewellyn Rockwell

  Thinking, Government, People

  "Speaking of Liberty". Book by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, 2003.

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• The bell of public opinion is today making the Morgan-Rockefeller-Vanderbilt class jump. Nor are the strongest of our corporations immune. The railroads have had to jump pretty lively, and certain gigantic industrial combinations are also being put through their paces.

  B. C. Forbes

  Class, Railroads, Pace

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• It is only through an abandonment of the idea that those entrusted with power have an exclusive right to decide upon war, and the substitution of a public opinion equipped with all the facts and taken into the confidence of the ruling classes, that peace can be assured to the world.

  Frederic C. Howe

  War, Taken, Decide Upon

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