Opinion Influence Quotes

I don't know anyone actually who does care what a critic says.

The conception that government should be guided by majority opinion makes sense only if that opinion is independent of government. The ideal of democracy rests on the belief that the view which will direct government emerges from an independent and spontaneous process. It requires, therefore, the existence of a large sphere independent of majority control in which the opinions of the individuals are formed.

There's a fine line between saying, 'You can't tell me what I can and can't do,' and taking on board people's opinions.

Reviews condition people. At the end of the day, a lot of human minds are malleable. They can be easily shaped with strong words.

I don't read reviews. I find them very distracting, whether they're good or bad.

Do we sufficiently appreciate how omnipotent is opinion in the matter of all government? Do we consider especially in how true a sense it is the creator, must be the upholder, and may be the destroyer of our united government?

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

Opinions are the cheapest commodities on earth. Everyone has a flock of opinions ready to be wished upon anyone who will accept them. If you are influenced by "opinions" when you reach DECISIONS, you will not succeed in any undertaking.

At the beginning of my career, my desire to understand was associated with a profound desire to act, with the wish to influence opinion and policy; but, over the years, this motivation has come to be of secondary importance, far behind my desire to understand.

In reality, most of us depend on others to articulate the issues, to interpret data, and explain the implications. Few of us have the time or interest to read background reports for ourselves; even fewer have the inclination or ability to examine primary data. The volume, breadth, and complexity of our national issues defy casual understanding and frequently overwhelm sincere seekers of deeper insight. As a result, we substantively rely on the opinions of others to form our own. Yet, many of those on whom we rely as the basis of our opinions are doing the exact same thing. […] This is a perverse dysfunction in the way we form and reinforce our opinions.

In the long run an opinion often borrows credit from the forbearance of its patrons.

Seducing one's neighbor to a good opinion and then afterwards believing devoutly in this neighbor's opinion--who can match women in this clever ploy?

Thanks to their decreased brainpower, people aren't diverted from the main business of life by the hobgoblins of opinion anymore.

Nothing is so contagious as opinion, especially on questions which, being susceptible of very different glosses, beget in the mind a distrust of itself.

I think opinions should be judged by their influences and effects; and if a man holds none that tend to make him less virtuous or more vicious, it may be concluded that he holds none that are dangerous, which I hope is the case with me.

What is the government? Nothing, unless supported by opinion.

I didn't think I had a weird voice until everyone started saying I did.

In a world where the threat is asymmetrical, where the weak defy the strong, the power of conviction, the capacity to convince, the ability to sway opinion count as much as the number of military divisions.

One might almost reckon mathematically that, having undergone the double composition of public opinion and of the author, their history reaches us at third hand and is thus separated by two stages from the original fact.

Every opinion reacts on him who utters it.

If an opinion can eventually go to the determination of a practical belief, it, in so far, becomes itself a practical belief; and every proposition that is not pure metaphysical jargon and chatter must have some possible bearing upon practice.

Mere opinions, in fact, were as likely to govern people's actions as hard evidence, and were subject to sudden reversals as hard evidence could never be.

Personally, I read reviews because I'm interested by them, but they don't have utility for me.