Quotes About Opinion

What a hideous colour khaki is

Great is the truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects, by lowering what Mr Churchill calls an 'iron curtain' between the masses and such facts or arguments as the local political bosses regard as undesirable, totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have done by the most eloquent denunciations, the most compelling of logical rebuttals.

I paused. ...I'm not dreaming. True. Then I'm going insane. Do you want an honest answer? Yes. He shrugged. I'd only query the tense. But I'm not a professional, so, you know, seek out a second opinion.

If you think the sea is blue and I think it's green, why try to convince you?

Do I shock you? I think I do. That's the problem these days – nobody speaks their mind. No, don't smile. They really don't. We've been browbeaten into conformity by all sorts of people who tell us what we can and cannot say. Haven't you noticed it? The tyranny of political correctness. Don't pass any judgement on anything. Don't open your trap in case you offend somebody or other.

The size of one's house might bear a relationship to the size of one's opinion of oneself, but it had nothing to do with one's real worth.

They should get another lawyer," he said. "Surely there are better people around. That man with the big nose—you know the one—they say that he's very good. The judges can't take their eyes off his nose, and so they always decide in his favour.

Perhaps this was a concomitant of freedom: if people were free, then some of them, at least, would be free of the constraints of good taste. Perhaps

There is a marked decline in something we value. It's the destruction of civility, said the Duke. Twenty years ago, people may have had their differences of opinion - of course they did- but they did not abuse one another for it. They respected those with whom they disagreed. They spoke courteously.

It's the destruction of civility," said the Duke. "Twenty years ago, people may have had their differences of opinion – of course they did – but they did not abuse one another for it. They respected those with whom they disagreed. They spoke courteously.

He's not too bad, actually. If you don't mind him going on about Byzantium, he can be quite nice.

people decided what they thought and would not be moved, not even by the most patient, the most rational argument.

Why should everybody embrace the herd instinct, which required one to regard one set of politicians as being always in the right while demonizing another set?

We are very keen to disapprove.

I see that Emma's playing Erik Satie," he said to Mr. Woodhouse. "That's one of the Gymnopédies, isn't it?" "I believe it is," said Mr. Woodhouse. "I don't care for it very much. In fact, it gives me the creeps. It's the sort of thing a spider would play if spiders played the piano.

Do not think that in any case where there are two competing arguments one of them has to be right: both can be wrong.

when people ask for advice they very rarely want your advice and will go ahead and do what they want to do anyway, no matter what you say.

What I said to you was private. We can have private reservations about a person's work, but that doesn't mean to say that we have to spell those out to him. It's called tact, Isabel!

All of us had a view from somewhere

You are innocent in your heart," she had said to him. "That is the most important thing." And he had thought about that for a few moments before shaking his head and saying, "I would like that to be true, Mma, but it is not. It is what other people think. That is the most important thing.

Why do you ask that dog if he has a soul?" Mma Ramotswe sighed. "It's very complicated, Rra. You see…Well, you see: Mma Makutsi said dogs were just meat inside. Those were her actual words." "She's wrong," he said. "I think so. I

People, she said, generally wanted other people to believe the things they did, and would punish those who deviated...There were many such snares placed in the way of the unwary, and the consequence of inattention to the enforced wisdom of the times could be a medieval public shaming.

That was what academic freedom was all about, Herr Huber thought. It was the freedom to do what one liked and not be challenged by people lower down the pecking order who did not like what you did.

This lowered him very much in the opinion of all our young fellows. Want of courage is the last thing to be pardoned by young men, who usually look upon bravery as the chief of all human virtues, and the excuse for every possible fault. But, by degrees, everything became forgotten, and Silvio regained his former influence