“Public opinion is stronger than the legislature, and nearly as strong as the Ten Commandments.”

1930s, Fireside Chat in the night before signing the Fair Labor Standards (1938)
Context: In nine cases out of ten the speaker or writer who, seeking to influence public opinion, descends from calm argument to unfair blows hurts himself more than his opponent.
The Chinese have a story on this — a story based on three or four thousand years of civilization: Two Chinese coolies were arguing heatedly in the midst of a crowd. A stranger expressed surprise that no blows were being struck. His Chinese friend replied: "The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out."

Page 66
Faith and Politics (2006)

Source: Edge of Eternity

That was a great experience—to suddenly become one of those holy people. I was holier than thou.
"Yvonne De Carlo Reminds The World There Was Life Before Lily Munster" (1987)

Prince Lucifer (1887), Lucifer in Act VI, sc. ii; p. 189.

"Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels," Polemic (September/October 1946) - Full text online http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/swift/english/e_swift
Context: In a Society in which there is no law, and in theory no compulsion, the only arbiter of behaviour is public opinion. But public opinion, because of the tremendous urge to conformity in gregarious animals, is less tolerant than any system of law. When human beings are governed by "thou shalt not", the individual can practise a certain amount of eccentricity: when they are supposedly governed by "love" or "reason", he is under continuous pressure to make him behave and think in exactly the same way as everyone else.

"Yvonne De Carlo Reminds The World There Was Life Before Lily Munster" (1987)