Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
1800s, First Inaugural Address (1801)
The First Part, Chapter 11, p. 50
Leviathan (1651)
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
1800s, First Inaugural Address (1801)
“Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
Source: Walden and Other Writings
“Schools praised diversity but were culturally the same. Different skin color, same opinions.”
Gregory Benford (1941) Science fiction author and astrophysicist
Source: Short fiction, The Man Who Sold The Stars (2013), p. 318
Karl Popper (1902–1994) Austrian-British philosopher of science
"The Importance of Critical Discussion" in On the Barricades: Religion and Free Inquiry in Conflict (1989) by Robert Basil
Context: There is an almost universal tendency, perhaps an inborn tendency, to suspect the good faith of a man who holds opinions that differ from our own opinions. … It obviously endangers the freedom and the objectivity of our discussion if we attack a person instead of attacking an opinion or, more precisely, a theory.
“What is public opinion? It is private indolence.”
Georg Brandes (1842–1927) Danish literature critic and scholar
Source: An Essay on Aristocratic Radicalism (1889), p. 9
“The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.”
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.