Public Opinion Quotes - Page 6

• Public opinion: May it always perform one of its appropriate offices, by teaching the public functionaries of the State and of the Federal Government, that neither shall assume the exercise of powers entrusted by the Constitution to the other.

  James K. Polk

  Teaching, Exercise, Government

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• There is nothing in the world that could make me turn from the law. With a clear conscience, I am prepared to answer for each and every one of my political and administrative orders and actions, and to do so before the court of public opinion.

  Djemal Pasha

  Order, Law, Political

  "A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility". Book by by Taner Akçam, Paul Bessemer, p. 246, 2006.

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• The possibility of my presidential candidacy emerged spontaneously in public opinion polls. For my part, I noticed people's affection when I was doing work on the ground. I think the important thing is that my candidacy was born from citizens themselves, driven by the people and which the parties picked up favourably.

  Michelle Bachelet

  Party, Thinking, People

  "Michelle, top woman in a macho world". Interview with Diane Dixon, www.theguardian.com. April 2, 2006.

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• I get to hear the really good or the really bad things in the press, but I don't read it. I can afford to say that because public opinion does not drive U2's audience.

  Bono

  Doe, Audience, Bad Things

  "Bono: 'There's a difference between cosying up to power and being close to power'". Interview with Tim Adams, www.theguardian.com. September 21, 2013.

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• The Iranian government intends to use the nuclear program for peaceful purposes, but must convince international public opinion of that.

  Shirin Ebadi

  Love, Peace, Government

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• The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Moving, World, Levers

  Thomas Jefferson, J. Jefferson Looney (2004). “The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: 1 October 1814 to 31 August 1815”, p.167, Princeton University Press

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• 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.

  Curtis LeMay

  Country, Thinking, Hands

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• The polls are just being used as another tool of voter suppression. The polls are an attempt to not reflect public opinion, but to shape it. Yours. They want to depress the heck out of you...

  Rush Limbaugh

  Depressing, Tools, Shapes

  "'Skewed' Polls, ACORN, And Right-Wing Delusion" by Eric Boehlert, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 28, 2012.

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• Whenever the government of the United States shall break up, it will probably be in consequence of a false direction having been given to public opinion.

  James F. Cooper

  Break Up, Government, United States

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• From whichever angle one looks at it, the application of racial theories remains a striking proof of the lowered demands of public opinion upon the purity of critical judgment.

  Johan Huizinga

  Looks, Demand, Judgment

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• The time will come when public opinion will no longer tolerate amusements based on the mistreatment and killing of animals. The time will come, but when? When will we reach the point that hunting, the pleasure in killing animals for sport, will be regarded as a mental aberration?

  Albert Schweitzer

  Sports, Animal, Hunting

  Albert Schweitzer (1966). “The Teaching of Reverence for Life”

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• It is a mournful fact that most men, and indeed all men of worldly character, have so much regard to public opinion that they dare not act according to the dictates of their consciences when acting thus would incur the popular frown.

  Charles Grandison Finney

  Character, Men, Acting

  Charles Grandison Finney, George REDFORD (D.D.) (1851). “Lectures on systematic theology, embracing moral government, the atonement, etc. Revised, enlarged, and partly re-written by the Author ... Edited ... by G. Redford”, p.455

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• There is no use in deceiving ourselves. American public opinion rejects the market economy, the capitalistic free enterprise system that provided the nation with the highest standard of living ever attained. Full government control of all activities of the individual is virtually the goal of both national parties.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Party, Government, Goal

  Ludwig Von Mises (1990). “Economic freedom and interventionism: an anthology of articles and essays”

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• I remember laughing when we made those slogans up [about abortion]. . . . We were looking for some sexy, catchy slogans to capture public opinion. They were very cynical slogans then, just as all of these slogans today are very, very cynical.

  Bernard Nathanson

  Sexy, Laughing, Cynical

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• They are lying every day. They are lying always, and mainly they are lying to their public opinion

  Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

  Funny, Military, Lying

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• It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonialization, or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands.

  Ariel Sharon

  Israel, Land, Numbers

  Agence France Presse, en.wikipedia.org. November 15, 1998.

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• I fear the popular notion of success stands in direct opposition in all points to the real and wholesome success. One adores public opinion, the other, private opinion; one, fame, the other, desert; one, feats, the other, humility; one, lucre, the other, love; one, monopoly, and the other, hospitality of mind.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Success, Real, Humility

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1870). “Society and Solitude: Twelve Chapters”, p.246, London S. Low, Son & Marston 1870.

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• Public opinion alone can keep a society pure and healthy.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Struggle, Healthy, Debate

  Mahatma Gandhi (1967). “The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi”, p.353, Rajpal & Sons

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• I do not regret having braved public opinion, when I knew it was wrong and was sure it would be merciless.

  Horace Greeley

  Regret, Would Be, Opinion

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• For the superior morality, of which we hear so much, we too would desire to be thankful: at the same time, it were but blindness to deny that this superior morality is properly rather an inferior criminality, produced not by greater love of Virtue, but by greater perfection of Police; and of that far subtler and stronger Police, called Public Opinion.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Love, Perfection, Being Thankful

  Thomas Carlyle, G. B. Tennyson (1984). “Carlyle Reader”, p.50, CUP Archive

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• The truth is, that, even with the most secure tenure of office, during good behavior, the danger is not, that the judges will be too firm in resisting public opinion, and in defence of private rights or public liberties; but, that they will be ready to yield themselves to the passions, and politics, and prejudices of the day.

  Joseph Story

  Passion, Yield, Rights

  Joseph Story (1858). “Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: with a preliminary review of the constitutional history of the colonies and states, before the adoption of the Constitution”, p.464

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• When a large number of organs of the press come to advance along the same track, their influence becomes almost irresistible in the long term, and public opinion, struck always from the same side, ends by yielding under their blows.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Blow, Numbers, Long

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2012). “Democracy in America”, p.178, University of Chicago Press

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• A little matter will move a party, but it must be something great that moves a nation.

  Thomas Paine

  Party, Moving, Greatness

  Thomas Paine (1852). “The Rights of Man: With a Brief Historical Preface”, p.98

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• 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

  Real, Reflection, Voice

  George Washington, Jared Sparks (1838). “The writings of George Washington”, p.122

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• No serious sociologist any longer believes that the voice of the people expresses any divine or specially wise and lofty idea. The voice of the people expresses the mind of the people, and that mind is made up for it by the group leaders in whom it believes and by those persons who understand the manipulation of public opinion. It is composed of inherited prejudices and symbols and clichés and verbal formulas supplied to them by the leaders.

  Edward Bernays

  Wise, Believe, Ideas

  "Propaganda". Book by Edward Bernays, 1928.

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