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Opinion Quotes

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Opinion Quotes

“They, who would combat general authority with particular opinion, must first establish themselves a reputation of understanding better than other men.”

Men Firsts Understanding Opinion Particular Authority Reputation Combat

Author:John Dryden

“Who can know how much of his most inward life is made up of the thoughts he believes other men to have about him, until that fabric of opinion is threatened with ruin?”

Knows Men Believe Made Life Is Opinion Know How Reputation Ruins Inward Fabric Threatened

Book:Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

Source: Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

“The two chief things that give a man reputation in counsel, are the opinion of his honesty, and the opinion of his wisdom; the authority of those two will persuade.”

Men Giving Two Opinion Honesty Authority Reputation Chiefs

Book:The Works of Ben Jonson

Source: The Works of Ben Jonson

“Who confers reputation? who gives respect and veneration to persons, to books, to great men? Who but Opinion? How utterly insufficient are all the riches of the world without her approbation!”

Men World Giving Persons Book Opinion Riches Reputation Great Men Insufficient Veneration

Book:Thoughts of Blaise Pascal

Source: Thoughts of Blaise Pascal

“If a man were only to deal in the world for a day, and should never have occasion to converse more with mankind, never more need their good opinion or good word, it were then no great matter (speaking as to the concernments of this world), if a man spent his reputation all at once, and ventured it at one throw; but if he be to continue in the world, and would have the advantage of conversation while he is in it, let him make use of truth and sincerity in all his words and actions; for nothing but this will last and hold out to the end.”

Source: The works of the most reverend Dr. John Tillotson ...

“From the very beginning, all of my films have divided the critics. Some have thought them wonderful, and others have found very little good to say. But subsequent critical opinion has always resulted in a very remarkable shift to the favorable. In one instance, the same critic who originally rapped the film has several years later put it on an all-time best list. But of course, the lasting and ultimately most important reputation of a film is not based on reviews, but on what, if anything, people say about it over the years, and on how much affection for it they have.”

“Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.”

Body Action Desire Opinion Property Pursuit Command Reputation One Word Aversion

Book:The Handbook of Epictetus

Source: The Handbook of Epictetus

“A vice sanctioned by the general opinion is merely a vice. The evil terminates in itself. A vice condemned by the general opinion produces a pernicious effect on the whole character. The former is a local malady; the latter, constitutional taint. When the reputation of the offender is lost, he too often flings the remainder of his virtue after it in despair.”

Whole Character Evil Lost Opinion Virtue Effects Produce Despair Vices Locals Reputation Former Latter Fling Pernicious Offenders Malady

Author:Thomas B. Macaulay

“It is the long term investor who will in practice come in for the most criticism. For it is the essence of his behaviour that he should be eccentric, unconventional and rash in the eyes of the average opinion. If he is successful, that will only confirm the general belief in his rashness; and if in the short run he is unsuccessful, which is very likely, he will not receive much mercy. Worldly wisdom teaches that it is better for reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally.”

“He whose honor depends on the opinion of the mob must day by day strive with the greatest anxiety, act and scheme in order to retain his reputation. For the mob is varied and inconsistent, and therefore if a reputation is not carefully preserved it dies quickly.”

Ifs Order Dies Opinion Depends Honor Anxiety Strive Reputation Schemes Inconsistent

Author:Baruch Spinoza

“So that in the nature of man, we find three principal causes of quarrel. First, competition; secondly, diffidence; thirdly, glory. The first maketh men invade for gain; the second, for safety; and the third, for reputation. The first use violence, to make themselves masters of other men's persons, wives, children, and cattle; the second, to defend them; the third, for trifles, as a word, a smile, a different opinion, and any other sign of undervalue, either direct in their persons or by reflection in their kindred, their friends, their nation, their profession, or their name.”

Source: Leviathan, Parts I and II

“It is not for us to give an assessment to what happened, but in our opinion the reputation of British science, the reputation of the British government, and the reputation of the title 'Sir' has sustained heavy damage.”

Giving Government Opinion Happened Heavy British Reputation Titles Damage Assessment British Government

Author:Andrey Illarionov