Quotes About Opinions

Tutti gli uomini nascono aristotelici o platonici, cioè razionali o irrazionali: le opinioni e le interpretazioni difficilmente interesseranno i primi, i fatti e le dimostrazioni non convinceranno mai i secondi.

From something as simple as what goes in to a good meatloaf to the not so simple - religion, culture, how you should vote, every damn thing you think or believe, your reactions, your behavior - were partially shaped by who and what your parents were.

Libraries represent the sole contemporary American institution with the potential for making available a wide-ranging, genuinely diverse spectrum of opinions, cultural expressions, and ideas in an environment that is commercial-free and huckster-free, a commons where people can gather and select, in an un-intimidating atmosphere, whatever interests them, delights them, or even repels them--whatever they want to know about.

In the information age, because we all have access to information, everyone considers themselves an expert.

There seems to be no end to the satisfaction one gets in having one's opinions confirmed.

Honestly, the only question most Americans ask about a new building at this point is basically: Is it a soul-sucking eyesore of cheap-ass despair? It's not? Whew.

We the people have never agreed on much of anything. ... [D]isunity is the through-line in the national plot. Not necessarily as a failing, but as a free people's privileged.

But it's a tiresome preoccupation, self-esteem. Something has to be done to limit the number of people whose opinions can affect us.

Sometimes what seems to be a difference in opinions is in fact just a difference in definitions.

You can't accommodate a hundred different opinions, and you can't ignore them. All you can do is provide people with the illusion that they participated in the decision. For some reason, that's enough to make people happy. This is the basis for all democracies.

Do you think we should put terrorists' opinions in the media? Yes, replied the Avatar. The most basic need of any human being is the need to communicate. If you shut down the nonviolent channels of communication, people will find alternate channels.Terrorism is communication disguised as warfare. If you treat it as war, you cannot stop it. When you treat it as communication, you have a chance to replace it with something less lethal.

Confirmation bias isn't an occasional bug in our human operating system. It is the operating system. We are designed by evolution to see new information as supporting our existing opinions, so long as it doesn't stop us from procreating. Evolution doesn't care if you understand your reality. It only cares that you reproduce.

If you don't understand confirmation bias, you might think new information can change people's opinions. As a trained persuader, I know that isn't the case, at least when emotions are involved. People don't change opinions about emotional topics just because some information proved their opinion to be nonsense. Humans aren't wired that way.

the accuracy of our opinions is deeply influenced by our ability to imagine alternate explanations for events.

we come to understand how easy it is to be confident in our opinions and yet spectacularly wrong.

When you identify as part of a group, your opinions tend to be biased toward the group consensus.

I respect your right to hold your religious beliefs, and if they help you, I think that's great. I would, however, like to inform you that you are a raving kook.

You don't believe all that crap, do you - that there's one way to look, and everyone is programmed to agree on it?

You'd best ask the lady boffin, sir," Newkirk said. "Midshipmen aren't allowed to have opinions.

AUTHOR: Who writes anything good these days, Or reads with moderate intelligence! And what the dear young folk all praise, [4090] I've never seen such stupid nonsense.

Die alberne Figur, die ich mache, wenn in Gesellschaft von ihr gesprochen wird, solltest du sehen! Wenn man mich nun gar fragt, wie sie mir gefällt?—gefällt! Das Wort hasse ich auf den Tod. Was muß das für ein Mensch sein, dem Lotte gefällt, dem sie nicht alle Sinne, alle Empfindungen ausfüllt!

A boy of fifteen who is not a democrat is good for nothing, and he is no better who is a democrat at twenty.

The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.

Government has no right to hurt a hair on the head of an Atheist for his Opinions. Let him have a care of his Practices. { Letter to his son and future president, John Quincy Adams , 16 June 1816 }