“All empty souls tend toward extreme opinions.”

— W.B. Yeats

Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

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W.B. Yeats 255

Irish poet and playwright 1865–1939

Leon Festinger (1919–1989) American psychologist

Leon Festinger and John Thibaut. "Interpersonal communication in small groups." The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 46.1 (1951): 92.

“When there is a range of opinion in the group, communications tend to be directed towards those members whose opinions are at the extremes of the range.”

John Thibaut (1917–1986) American social psychologist

Leon Festinger and John Thibaut. "Interpersonal communication in small groups." The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 46.1 (1951): 92.

“Accusations of hypocrisy themselves tend to be rather hypocritical — if no hypocrites were permitted to hold opinions, there would likely be no opinions at all.”

Shaun Chamberlin

"Confessions of a Hypocrite: Utopia in the Age of Ecocide" Kosmos (2016) https://www.kosmosjournal.org/article/confessions-of-a-hypocrite-utopia-in-the-age-of-ecocide/

“We are all assumed, these days, to reside at one extreme of the opinion spectrum, or another.”

Michael Crichton (1942–2008) American author, screenwriter, film producer

"Mediasaurus: The decline of conventional media" http://www.crichton-official.com/speeches/speeches_quote02.html - Speech at the National Press Club, Washington D.C. (7 April 1993)
Context: We are all assumed, these days, to reside at one extreme of the opinion spectrum, or another. We are pro-abortion or anti-abortion. We are free traders or protectionist. We are pro-private sector or pro-big government. We are feminists or chauvinists. But in the real world, few of us holds these extreme views. There is instead a spectrum of opinion.

“His own opinion, which he does not air, is that the origin of speech lie in song, and the origins of song in the need to fill out with sound the overlarge and rather empty human soul.”

J.M. Coetzee book Disgrace

Source: Disgrace (1999), p. 3-4
Context: Although he devoted hours of each day to his new discipline, he finds its first premise, as enunciated in the Communications 101 handbook, preposterous: 'Human society has created language in order that we may communicate our thoughts, feelings, and intentions to each other.' His own opinion, which he does not air, is that the origins of speech lie in song, and the origins of song in the need to fill out with sound the overlarge and rather empty human soul.