Dissenting Opinion Quotes

The right to dissent is one of the great and cherished freedoms that we enjoy by reason of the excellent accident of our American births.

My intent is to tell the truth as I know it, realizing that what is true for me may be blasphemy for others.

(Referring to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia:) A fine, honest gentleman with whom I agree with on almost nothing.

To succeed as a contrarian you must recognize what the crowd believes, have concrete justification for why the majority is wrong, and have the patience and conviction to stick with what is, by definition, an unpopular bet.

To be a contrarian, you've got to be a contrarian against your own people.

The majority is never right, unless it includes me.

The prevailing attitude of the speakers was one of heavy disagreement with a number of things which the reader had not said.

If you make a choice that goes against what everyone else thinks, the world will not fall apart.

Mr. President I am here to tell you we are not buying what you are selling in 2012.

I never approved either the errors of his book, or the trivial truths he so vigorously laid down. I have, however, stoutly taken his side when absurd men have condemned him for these same truths.

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 know which of the many competing new opinions will prove itself the best that we wait until it has gained sufficient support.

The word heretic ought to be a term of honour.

When everyone is unanimous, I wonder whether they are right…. George, at every meeting henceforth I want you to make the most cogent and articulate argument against the war and I will never stop you.

Somebody informed me recently that the key to every art, from writing to gardening to sculpture, is creativity. I beg to differ.

I don't entirely agree with the slogan "speaking truth to power."

It's simply not bias for a judge to explain her reasoning in a dissent.

It's definitely an intrinsic part of my makeup that makes me want to see black when everyone else is seeing white.

Mahatma Gandhi was always talking of religion...He was convinced that was right...The fact is, we young people didn't agree with him on many things.

My dissenting opinions, like my briefs, are intended to persuade. And sometimes one must be forceful about saying how wrong the Court's decision is.

Justice Scalia was a lion of the law. Agree or disagree with him, all of his colleagues on the bench shared his wisdom and his humor. And like them, I miss him.

I'm through with Tolstoy. He has ceased to exist for me.... If I eat a bowl of soup and like it, I know by that fact alone and with absolute certainty that Tolstoy will find it bad, and vice versa.

Hating war in Vietnam in 1965 was minority position.

I do hope that some of my dissents will one day be the law.

Some of the most valuable stuff I do has to do with my dissenting from the general opinion about people in movements.