Quotes

Quotes about Opinion


When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness--That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such Principles and and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. . . .

Thomas Jefferson

We must not always judge of the generality of the opinion by the noise of the acclamation.

Edmund Burke

The point is not to take the world's opinion as a guiding star but to go one's way in life and working unerringly, neither depressed by failure nor seduced by applause.

Gustav Mahler

When I lately stood with a friend before [the cathedral of] Amiens, . . . he asked me how it happens that we can no longer build such piles? I replied: "Dear Alphonse, men in those days had convictions (Ueberzeugungen), we moderns have opinions (Meinungen) and it requires something more than an opinion to build a Gothic cathedral.

Heinrich Heine

Where we desire to be informed 'tis good to contest with men above ourselves; but to confirm and establish our opinions, 'tis best to argue with judgments below our own, that the frequent spoils and victories over their reasons may settle in ourselves an esteem and confirmed opinion of our own.

Sir Thomas Browne

The difficult part in an argument is not to defend one's opinion but rather to know it.

Andre Maurois

Portraits are supposed to "look within," but in my opinion very few people have an interior significantly different from the outside portrait.

Jon Witcomb

A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world.

Edmond De Goncourt

A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on.

Carl Sandburg

Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief she is beautiful. •Sophia Loren Nothing's beautiful from every point of view. •Horace Beauty is the first present nature gives to women and the first it takes away. •George Brossin Méré ...It's a sort of bloom on a woman. If you have it you don't need to have anything else; and if you don't have it, it doesn't much matter what else you have. •James Matthew Barrie In every man's heart there is a secret nerve that answers to the vibrations of beauty. •Christopher Morley Beauty is power; a smile is its sword. •Charles Reade Beauty is only skin deep, but it's a valuable asset if you're poor or haven't any sense. •Kin Hubbard Beauty is not caused. It is. •Emily Dickinson Beauty is an outward gift which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused. •Edward Gibbon My heart that was rapt away by the wild cherry blossoms—will it return to my body when they scatter? •Kotomichi Beauty's tears are lovelier than her smile. •Campbell Champagne is the only wine a woman can drink and still remain beautiful. •Mme. de Pompadour Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty; it is not only needless, but impairs what it would improve. •Pope Delusions are often functional. A mother's opinions about her children's beauty, intelligence, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keep her from drowning them at birth. •Lazarus Long Honesty coupled to beauty is to have honey a sauce to sugar. •Shakespeare It is good that the young are beautiful; it is the only advantage they have. •The Duchess of Windsor Love that has nothing but beauty to keep it in good health is short lived, and apt to have ague fits. •Erasmus The beautiful are never desolate, But someone always loves them. •Bailey Beauty, n: the power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies a husband. •Ambrose Bierce Everything beautiful has its moment and then passes away. •Luis Cernuda Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait. •Ralph Waldo Emerson Plain women know more about men than beautiful ones do. But beautiful women don't need to know about men. It's the men who have to know about beautiful women. •Katherine Hepburn A bachelor never quite gets over the idea that he is a thing of beauty and a boy forever. •Helen Rowland There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness. •Countess of Blessington Truth exists for the wise, beauty for the feeling heart. •Johann von Schiller When a girl ceases to blush, she has lost the most powerful charm of her beauty. •Gregory I The average man is more interested in a woman who is interested in him than he is in a woman, any woman, with beautiful legs. •Marlene Dietrich Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. •John Keats I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin deep. That's deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas? •Jean Kerr The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt. •Anonymous What ever beauty may be, it has for its basis order, and for its essence unity. •Father Andre Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference. •Aristotle I'm not ugly, but my beauty is a total creation. •Tyra Banks Exuberance is beauty. •William Blake Even with all my wrinkles! I am beautiful! •Bessie Delanay As soon as beauty is sought not from religion and love, but for pleasure, it degrades the seeker. •Ralph Waldo Emerson Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. •Kahlil Gibran Beauty is worse than wine, it intoxicates both the holder and beholder. •Immermann Beauty is a short-lived tyranny. •Socrates Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man to enlarge his kind.

Sophia Loren

Bigotry may be roughly defined as the anger of men who have no opinions.

G. K. Chesterton

At the bottom of a good deal of the bravery that appears in the world there lurks a miserable cowardice. Men will face powder and steel because they cannot face public opinion.

Edwin Hubbel Chapin

A cat's got her own opinion of human beings. She don't say much, but you can tell enough to make you anxious not to hear the whole of it.

Jerome K. Jerome

Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.

Benjamin Disraeli

Insofar as theology is an attempt to define and clarify intellectual positions, it is apt to lead to discussion, to differences of opinion, even to controversy, and hence to be divisive. And this has had a strong tendency to dampen serious discussion of theological issues in most groups, and hence to strengthen the general anti-intellectual bias...

Sidney E. Mead

Feast of Martin, Monk, Bishop of Tours, 397 In short: in all his ways and walks, whether as touching his own business, or his dealings with other men, he must keep his heart with all diligence, lest he do aught, or turn aside to aught, or suffer aught to spring up or dwell within him or about him, or let anything be done in him or through him, otherwise than were meet for God, and would be possible and seemly if God Himself were verily made Man. ... Theologia Germanica November 12, 1997 The Partisan Review, a journal of literary opinion representing a section of advanced secular thought, recently published a series of papers answering the question, "Why has there been a turn toward religion among intellectuals?" The asking of the question is significant. Few writers dispute the fact implied by it. Most of the contributors, whether they count themselves among those who have "turned to religion" or not, find the principal reason for it in the collapse of the optimistic hope that modern science and human good will would bring the world into an era of peace and justice. The confidence in that outcome has been so violently shaken that men must ask whether there are not higher resources than man's to sustain courage and hope. The faith of the Bible points to such sources. God works within the tragic destiny of human efforts with a healing power, and a reconciling spirit. Even those who have felt completely superior to all "outworn" religious notions, must look today at least wistfully to the possibility that such a God lives and works.

D. D. Williams

The opinion of the intelligent is better than the certainty of the ignorant.

Egyptian Proverb

Every person is a fool in somebody's opinion.

Spanish Proverb

People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Singularity in the right hath ruined many happy those who are convinced of the general opinion.

Benjamin Franklin

No well-informed person has declared a change of opinion to be inconstancy. [Lat., Nemo doctus unquam mutationem consilii inconstantiam dixit esse.]

Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

Who ever has no fixed opinions has no constant feelings.

Joseph Joubert

I confess that there are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them. For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise.

Benjamin Franklin

Nothing contributes more to a person's peace of mind than having no opinions at all.

G. C. Lichtenberg

Physical courage, which despises all danger, will make a man brave in one way; and moral courage, which despises all opinion, will make a man brave in another.

Charles Caleb Colton

Authors | Quotes | Digests | Submit | Interact | Store

Copyright © Classics Network. Contact Us