Opinion

He who is master of all opinions can never be the bigot of any.
~ William Rounseville (W.R.) Alger

Public opinion is, with multitudes, a second conscience; with some, the only one.
~ William Rounseville (W.R.) Alger

[E]xperience teaches me that it is better to hold a well-understood and intelligible opinion, even if it should turn out to be wrong, than to be content with a muddle-headed mixture of conflicting views, sometimes miscalled impartiality, and often no better than no opinion at all.
~ William Maddock Bayliss, Principles of General Physiology (1915). Preface

My opinions may be doubted, denied, or approved, according as they conflict of agree with the opinions of each individual who may read them; but their worth will be best determined by the foundation on which they rest -- the incontrovertible facts.
~ William Beaumont, Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion (1833).

The man who never alters his opinions is like standing in water, and breeds reptiles in the mind.
~ William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93).

Studies show that people are more likely to accept the opinion of a confident con man than the cautious view of someone who actually knows what he is talking about. And professionals who form overconfident opinions on the basis of incorrect readings of the facts are more likely to succeed than their more competent peers who display greater doubt.
~ William Bonner, Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets: Surviving the Public Spectacle in Finance and Politics (2007).

It often takes more courage to change one's opinion than to keep it.
~ Willy Brandt

When you find people who have no differences, you will find people who have no thought.
~ William Jennings Bryan, Address at the National Peace Conference, New York (17 April 1907).

O thinkers and debaters! be moderate and more slow;
You can't make true opinions -- they have to seed and grow.
~ William McKendree ("Will") Carleton, from Farm Festivals (1881). The Festival Of Dis-reason; Or, The Debate

[P]assionate expressions and vehement asseverations are no arguments, unless it be of the weakness of the cause that is defended by them, or the man that defends it.
~ William Chillingworth, The Religion of Protestants, a safe way to Salvation (1637).

Men of integrity are generally pretty obstinate, in adhering to an opinion once adopted.
~ William Cobbett, The Life and Adventures of Peter Porcupine (1796).

I am always of the Opinion with the Learned, if they speak first.
~ William Congreve, Incognita; or, Love and Duty Reconcil'd (1691).

[O]pposition gives opinion strength.
~ William Cowper, from Poems by William Cowper of the Inner Temple, Esq. (1782). Conversation

We approve the most of those opinions, spoken or written, that accord most with our own.
~ William Danby, Ideas and Realities, or Thoughts on Various Subjects (1827).

Where knowledge cannot reach, opinion must supply its place.
~ William Danby, Thoughts, Chiefly on Serious Subjects (1821).

[T]he stupidity which disguises itself as thought, and which talks so glibly and eloquently, indeed never stops talking, in every walk of life is not so easy to identify, because it marches under a formidable name, which few dare attack. It is called Popular Opinion.
~ (William) Robertson Davies, in The Merry Heart: Reflections on Reading, Writing, and the World of Books (1996). Can a Doctor Be a Humanist? (originally published in 1984)

A perfect survey is a myth.
~ W. Edwards Deming, Some Theory of Sampling (1950).

Honest and earnest criticism from those whose interests are most nearly touched, -- criticism of writers by readers, -- this is the soul of democracy and the safeguard of modern society.
~ William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903).

Criticism is a forecast as well as a record, and a leverage for raising the standard as well as a standard held up.
~ Wilson Follett, The Modern Novel: A Study of the Purpose and the Meaning of Fiction (1918). Preface

In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but in its effects.
~ J. William Fulbright, Speech to the U.S. Senate (21 April 1966)

Are Right and Wrong convertible terms, dependant upon popular opinion?
~ William Lloyd Garrison, Thoughts on African Colonization (1832 pamphlet).

Change of opinion, in those to whose judgment the public looks more or less to assist its own, is an evil to the country, although a much smaller evil than their persistence in a course which they know to be wrong.
~ William Ewart Gladstone, (1868)

Ah, you've no idea what a poor opinion I have of myself, and how little I deserve it.
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert, Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse (1887 opera). Act I

No one can have a higher opinion of him than I have -- and I think he's a dirty little beast.
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert

This particularly rapid, unintelligible patter
Isn't generally heard, and if it is it doesn't matter!
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert, Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse (1887 opera). Act II

In childhood and youth, we naturally adopt the sentiments of those about us. And as we advance in life, how few of us think for ourselves? How many of us are satisfied with taking our opinions at second hand?
~ William Gilpin, Lectures on the Catechism of the Church of England (1779). Part II. Lecture XXI

He that in any degree consigns to another the task of dictating his opinions and his conduct, will cease to enquire for himself, or his enquiries will be languid and inanimate.
~ William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793).

A favourite theory is a possession for life.
~ William Hazlitt, Characteristics: in the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims (1823).

Men will die for an opinion as soon as for anything else.
~ William Hazlitt, Characteristics: in the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims (1823).

Nothing is more unjust or capricious than public opinion.
~ William Hazlitt, Characteristics: in the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims (1823).

People do not seem to talk for the sake of expressing their opinions, but to maintain an opinion for the sake of talking.
~ William Hazlitt, Table-Talk, or Original Essays on Men and Manners, 2nd series (1824). On Coffee-House Politicians

We are all of us more or less the slaves of opinion.
~ William Hazlitt, from Political Essays, with Sketches of Public Characters (1819). On Court Influence (Concluded; 10 January 1818)

We judge of others for the most part by their good opinion of themselves: yet nothing gives such offence, or creates so many enemies, as that extreme self-complacency or superciliousness of manner, which appears to set the opinion of every one else at defiance.
~ William Hazlitt, Characteristics: in the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims (1823).

Thus to be independent of public opinion is the first formal condition of achieving anything great or rational whether in life or in science.
~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (G.W.F.) Hegel, The Philosophy of Right (1821). Section 318

[I]t was said that Mr. Gladstone could persuade most people of most things, and himself of anything.
~ William Ralph (Dean) Inge, Labels & Libels (1929).

Public opinion, a vulgar, impertinent, anonymous tyrant who deliberately makes life unpleasant for anyone who is not content to be the average man.
~ William Ralph (Dean) Inge, from Outspoken Essays, First Series (1919). Our Present Discontents

There is no point of view absolutely public and universal.
~ William James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology: and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals (March 1899). Preface

It is so much easier to assume than to prove; it is so much less painful to believe than to doubt; there is such a charm in the repose of prejudice, when no discordant voice jars upon the harmony of belief; there is such a thrilling pang when cherished dreams are scattered, and old creeds abandoned, that it is not surprising that men should close their eyes to the unwelcome light.
~ William Edward Hartpole (E.H.) Lecky, History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, Vol. II (1865). Chapter IV. Part II: The History of Persecution

Sentimentality is only sentiment that rubs you the wrong way.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, from A Writer's Notebook (1949).

By God! I will not tell you more to-day,
Judge any way you will -- what matters it?
~ William Morris, The Defence of Guenevere, and Other Poems (1858). The Defence of Guenevere

A man who is very busy seldom changes his opinions.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Altered opinions do not alter a man's character (or do so very little); but they do illuminate individual aspects of the constellation of his personality which with a different constellation of opinions had hitherto remained dark and unrecognizable.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Every man who has declared that some other man is an ass or a scoundrel, gets angry when the other man conclusively shows that the assertion was erroneous.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human (1878).

One often contradicts an opinion when what is uncongenial is really the tone in which it was conveyed.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

The falseness of an opinion is not, for us, any objection to it. The question is how far it is life furthering, life preserving, species preserving and perhaps species creating.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

You give opinion. I give opinion. Has nothing to do with spin.
~ Bill O'Reilly, FoxNews Channel The O'Reilly Factor (29 November 2001). Personal Story: Bill Press

Who am I to have an opinion of my own?
~ Wilhelm Reich, Listen, Little Man! (1946; published 1948).

Somewhere out there, beyond the walls of the courthouse, run currents and tides of public opinion which lap at the courtroom door.
~ William H. Rehnquist, in The New York Times (17 April 1986).

It is more true to say that our opinions depend upon our lives and habits, than to say that our lives and habits depend on our opinions.
~ Frederick William (F.W.) Robertson

A difference of opinion is what makes horse racing and missionaries.
~ Will Rogers

Broad-minded is just another way of saying a fellow is too lazy to form an opinion.
~ Will Rogers

Wrigley was the first man to discover that American jaws must wag; so why not give them something to wag against.
~ Will Rogers

And I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act I, scene vii

By heaven, it is as proper to our age
To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions
As it is common for the younger sort
To lack discretion.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act II, scene i

[B]y my soul I swear
There is no power in the tongue of man
To alter me.
~ William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice. Act IV, scene i

Fair, kind, and true, is all my argument.
~ William Shakespeare, Sonnet 105

Opinion's but a fool, that makes us scan,
The outward habit by the inward man.
~ William Shakespeare, Pericles. Act II, scene ii

What's the matter, you dissentious rogues,
That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,
Make yourselves scabs?
~ William Shakespeare, Coriolanus. Act I, scene i

He who takes no position will not sway the human intellect.
~ William Greenough Thayer (G.T.) Shedd, Homiletics, and Pastoral Theology (1867). Chapter I

Deference is the most complicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments.
~ William Shenstone, in Works in Verse and Prose, Vol. II (1764). Essays on Men, Manners, and Things. Of Men and Manners

Let our differences be of the sort only which music justifies and requires, in which a certain amount of discord is admitted as one of the most necessary ingredients of harmony.
~ William Gilmore Simms, Egeria: Or, Voices of Thought and Counsel for the Woods and Wayside (1853).

No errors of opinion can possibly be dangerous in a country where opinion is left free to grapple with them.
~ William Gilmore Simms, Egeria: Or, Voices of Thought and Counsel for the Woods and Wayside (1853).

Social life in every stage of society is characterized by an eagerness to make a striking effect.
~ William Isaac "W.I." Thomas, Sex and Society: Studies in the Social Psychology of Sex (1907). Sex and Social Feeling

The more opinions you have, the less you see.
~ Wim Wenders, in The Evening Standard (London, 25 April 1990).

Nonconformity is an empty goal, and rebellion against prevailing opinion merely because it is prevailing should no more be praised than acquiescence to it. Indeed, it is often a mask for cowardice, and few are more pathetic than those who flaunt outer differences to expiate their inner surrender.
~ William H. Whyte, The Organization Man (1956). Chapter 1

There are always folks who have a vocal opinion about something or other, no matter what it is. On the other hand, it's easy to carry a sign. It's not so easy to go forth and do something worthwhile.
~ Donald E. Williams (on anti-nuclear activists protesting the space probe Galileo), (1989).

And where is the man, especially in power, who does not think his own opinion the best?
~ Theophilus Williams, Political Equity, or, A Fair Equalization of the National Burdens (1849).

Criticism ... should be written for the public and not for the artist.
~ William Winter, Oration Delivered Before the Goethe Society, New York City (28 January 1889). The Press and the Stage, Section XII

A community that is opinion-ridden, even when those opinions are in themselves noble, is likely to put its creative minds into some sort of a prison.
~ William Butler Yeats, in Explorations (1962). An Irish National Theatre

All empty souls tend to extreme opinion.
~ William Butler Yeats, from Dramatis Personae (1936).

Opinion is not worth a rush.
~ William Butler Yeats, from Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921).