#public opinion

The best government rests on the people, and not on the few, on persons and not on property, on the free development of public opinion and not on authority. ↗

— George Bancroft

#best #development #few #free #government

Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult. ↗

— Napoleon Bonaparte

#consult #monarch #opinion #public #public opinion

There is a power in public opinion in this country - and I thank God for it: for it is the most honest and best of all powers - which will not tolerate an incompetent or unworthy man to hold in his weak or wicked hands the lives and fortunes of his fellow-citizens. ↗

— Martin Van Buren

#country #fortunes #god #hands #his

One might almost reckon mathematically that, having undergone the double composition of public opinion and of the author, their history reaches us at third hand and is thus separated by two stages from the original fact. ↗

— Alfred de Vigny

#author #composition #double #fact #hand

There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion. ↗

— Winston Churchill

#opinion #public #public opinion #published #such

This war is being played in the realm of public opinion and has dire consequences for our soldiers in Iraq, the future of our country, and freedom around the world. ↗

— John Doolittle

#being #consequences #country #dire #freedom

Public opinion is stronger than the legislature, and nearly as strong as the ten commandments. ↗

— Charles Dudley Warner

#legislature #nearly #opinion #public #public opinion

As the senior commander in Vietnam, I was aware of the potency of public opinion - and I worried about it. ↗

— William Westmoreland

#aware #commander #i #opinion #potency

If a radical devolution of powers was possible, it would have been done before. The assumption of states' rights is gone. There's no support for it in the Supreme Court and there's no support for it in public opinion. ↗

— James Q. Wilson

#been #before #court #done #gone

Painting is a faith, and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion. ↗

— Vincent Van Gogh

#duty #faith #imposes #opinion #painting