#opinions

The hired preachers of all sects, creeds, and religions, never do, and never can, teach any thing but what is in conformity with the opinions of those who pay them. ↗

— Francis Wright

#conformity #creeds #hired #never #opinions

In America, everyone is entitled to an opinion, and it is certainly useful to have a few when a pollster shows up. But these are opinions of a quite different roder from eighteenth- or nineteenth-century opinions. It is probably more accurate to call them emotions rather than opinions, which would account for the fact that they change from week to week, as the pollsters tell us. What is happening here is that television is altering the meaning of 'being informed' by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation. I am using this world almost in the precise sense in which it is used by spies in the CIA or KGB. Disinformation does not mean false information. It means misleading information--misplace, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information--information that creates the illusion of knowing something but which in fact leads one away from knowing. In saying this, I do not mean to imply that television news deliberately aims to deprive Americans of a coherent, contextual understanding of their world. I mean to say that when news is packaged as entertainment, that is the inevitable result. And in saying that the television news show entertains but does not inform, I am saying something far more serious than that we are being deprived of authentic information. I am saying we are losing our sense of what it means to be well informed. Ignorance is always correctable. But what shall we do if we take ignorance to be knowledge? ↗

— Neil Postman

#ignorance #knowledge #media #nate-silver #opinions

All empty souls tend toward extreme opinions. ↗

— William Butler Yeats

#extreme #opinions #souls #tend #toward

We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away. ↗

— Zhuangzi

#away #cling #depended #everything #gradually

Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral laws are written on the table of eternity. ↗

— Lord Acton

#change #creeds #eternity #fall #laws

Don't allow the opinions of other people to shape your concept of him. Get to know him yourself, and let the goodness of God change you from the inside out. ↗

— Judah Smith

#opinions #change

You will find that people will always have opinions about your decisions. Don’t take it personally, it’s simply because they're not courageous enough to take action in their own lives. Be a leader in your life and pay no mind to those who lack the courage to do the same in theirs. ↗

— Steve Maraboli

#courage #decisions #inspiration #leader #life

Opinions are like nipples, everybody has one. Some have firm points, others are barely discernible through layers, and some are displayed at every opportunity regardless of whether the audience has stated "I am interested in your nipples" or not. ↗

— David Thorne

#nipples #opinions #humor

It's a very complicated issue about when is a fact not a fact in the context of opinions. ↗

— Daniel Okrent

#complicated #context #fact #issue #opinions

People can tell you to keep your mouth shut, but that doesn't stop you from having your own opinion. ↗

— Anne Frank

#opinions #independence