Private Opinions Quotes

I have a few theories and trains of thought that I wouldn't expose because they are not anyone's business. I hold them sacred, it's how I feel, it's my opinion, not up for debate, and not meant to be shared.

Legislatures have no right to set up an inquisition and examine into the private opinions of men.

The view that honesty is something, and even a virtue, belongs, it is true, to those private opinions which are forbidden in this age of public opinions.

Opinions are a private matter. The public has an interest only in judgments.

No human government has the right to enquire into private opinions ...

No human government has a right to enquire into private opinions, to presume that it knows them, or to act on that presumption. Men are the best judges of the consequences of their own opinions, and how far they are likely to influence their actions; and it is most unnatural and tyrannical to say, "as you think, so must you act. I will collect the evidence of your future conduct from what I know to be your opinions."

I follow politics, but I don't like to discuss it.

I don't discuss my own beliefs in public, but I will say the beliefs I've given my characters do not necessarily represent what I myself believe.

Sane and intelligent human beings are like all other human beings, and carefully and cautiously and diligently conceal their private real opinions from the world and give out fictitious ones in their stead for general consumption.

We may have our private opinions but why should they be a bar to the meeting of hearts?

I don't wear my political feelings on my sleeve. However, if I'm asked, I will answer honestly.

I keep my political views to myself.

I always hate it when I hear actors talking about the process of what they do, so I'll keep my thoughts to myself.

Legislatures have no right to set up an inquisition and examine into the private opinions of men. Test-laws are useless and ineffectual, unjust and tyrannical.

There are so many books and movies I like; I never mention specific ones.

Art is not politics. The glory of the novel is that in its essence, it is a democratic form, because it treats individuals as worthy of scrutiny. That alone is a kind of political act. A good novel about a tea party of rich women can be just as galvanizing and important to the soul as War and Peace, so I think it's not really the job of artists to do anything. They can have their opinions as private citizens, but they must continue making their art.

I think politics has an influence on my work now, perhaps more so than when I was a childless young man, but I hope never to deal with these kinds of issues in anything more than a covert manner. I'm more interested in figuring out what I think than in pronouncing my views to the world.