This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"Of all the ingenious mistakes into which erring man has fallen, perhaps none have been so pernicious in their consequences, or have brought so many; evils into the world, as the popular opinion that the way of the transgressor is pleasant and easy." - Hosea Ballou
"Opinion is a consciously insufficient judgment, subjectively as well as objectively. Belief is subjectively sufficient, but is recognized as being objectively insufficient. Knowledge is both subjectively and objectively sufficient. Subjective sufficiency is termed conviction (for myself); objective sufficiency is termed certainty (for all)." - Immanuel Kant
"In the minds of most men, the kingdom of opinion is divided into three territories - the territory of yes, the territory of no, and a broad, unexplored middle ground of doubt." - James A. Garfield
"Real political issues cannot be manufactured by the leaders of political parties, and real ones cannot be evaded by political parties. The real political issues of the day declare themselves, and come out of the depths of that deep which we call public opinion." - James A. Garfield
"The good opinion of our fellow men is the strongest, though not the purest motive to virtue." - James Bryant Conant
"Publicity is the very soul of justice. It is the keenest spur to exertion, and the surest of all guards against improbity. It keeps the judge himself, while trying, under trial. Under the auspices of publicity, the cause in the court of law, and the appeal to the court of public opinion, are going on at the same time... It is through publicity alone that justice becomes the mother of security." - Jeremy Bentham
"Stiff opinion, always in the wrong." - John Dryden
"Discover the opinion of your enemies, which is commonly the truest; for they will give you no quarter, and allow nothing to complaisance." - John Dryden
"Stiff in opinion; always in the wrong." - John Dryden
"What is thought to be the responsible public opinion is, at any given time, a reflection of the needs and interests of the corporate technostructure." - John Kenneth Galbraith, aka "Ken"
"Opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making." - John Milton
"Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making." - John Milton
"Because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage it contained. that so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time." - John Stuart Mill
"How can great minds be produced in a country where the test of great minds is agreeing in the opinion of small minds?" - John Stuart Mill
"If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind." - John Stuart Mill
"On every subject on which difference of opinion is possible, the truth depends on a balance to be struck between two sets of conflicting reasons." - John Stuart Mill
"The real advantage which truth has consists in this, that when an opinion is true, it may be extinguished once, twice, or many times, but in the course of ages there will generally be found persons to rediscover it, until some one of its reappearances falls on a time when from favorable circumstances it escapes persecution until it has made such a head as to withstand all subsequent attempts to suppress it." - John Stuart Mill
"In the human mind one-sidedness has always been the rule, and many-sidedness the exception. Hence, even in revolutions of opinion, one part of the truth usually sets while the other rises." - John Stuart Mill
"The real advantage which truth has, consists in this, that when an opinion is true, it may be extinguished once, twice, or many times, but in the course of ages there will generally be found persons to rediscover it." - John Stuart Mill
"Though the silenced opinion be an error, it may, and very commonly does, contain a portion of truth; an since the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied." - John Stuart Mill
"We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and even if we were sure, it would be an evil still." - John Stuart Mill
"Protection against the tyranny of the magistrate is not enough; there needs protection against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling, against the tendency of society to impose, by other means than civil penalties, its own ideas and practices as rules of conduct on those who dissent from them." - John Stuart Mill
"A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next, to escape the censures of the world. If the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but otherwise there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind, than to see those approbations which it gives itself, seconded by the applauses of the public. A man is more sure of his conduct, when the verdict which he passes upon his own behavior is thus warranted and confirmed by the opinion of all that know him." - Joseph Addison
"For my own part, I am apt to join in the opinion with those who believe that all the regions of Nature swarm with spirits, and that we have multitudes of spectators on all our actions when we think ourselves most alone." - Joseph Addison
"What hurt him most was his outrageous opinion of his own worth." - Latin Proverbs
"When I want your opinion, I'll give it to you." - Laurence J. Peter, fully Laurence Johnston Peter
"A difference of opinion, though in the merest trifles, alienates little minds." - Lord Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
"We must not reject a proven doctrine because it is opposed to some isolated opinion of this or that great authority... No man must surrender his private judgment. The eyes are directed forwards, not backwards." - Maimonides, given name Moses ben Maimon or Moshe ben Maimon, known as "Rambam" NULL
"Some people assume that the Universe was created solely for the sake of man’s existence, that he might serve God. On examining this opinion, as intelligent persons ought to examine all different opinions, we will discover that it is erroneous." - Maimonides, given name Moses ben Maimon or Moshe ben Maimon, known as "Rambam" NULL
"The most difficult secret for a man to keep is the opinion he has of himself." - Marcel Pagnol
"Grief is not natural but a matter of belief or opinion." - Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
"No liberal man (philosopher) would impute a charge of unsteadiness to another for having changed his opinion." - Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
"The great affairs of life are not performed by physical strength, or activity, or nimbleness of body, but by deliberation, character, expression of opinion. Of these old age is not only not deprived, but, as a rule, has them in a greater degree." - Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL
"Men and women must be educated, in a great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in. In every age there has been a stream of popular opinion that has carried all before it, and given a family character, as it were, to the century. It may then be fairly inferred, that, till society be differently constituted, much cannot be expected from education." - Mary Wollstonecraft
"The antiquity and general acceptance of an opinion is no assurance of its truth." - Pierre Bayle
"My opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally either in public or private life must have his eye fixed." - Plato NULL
"The irrational desire which overcomes the tendency of opinion towards right, and is led away to the enjoyment of beauty, and especially of personal beauty, by the desires which are her own kindred - that supreme desire, I say, which by leading conquers and by the force of passion is reinforced, from this very force, receiving a name, is called love." - Plato NULL
"The true lover of knowledge naturally strives for truth, and is not content with common opinion, but soars with undimmed and unwearied passion till he grasps the essential nature of things." - Plato NULL
"Power to preserve under all circumstances the right, lawful opinion of what is and is not to be feared." - Plato NULL
"The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we hold of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us." - Quentin Crisp, born Denis Charles Pratt