 There is nothing more dangerous than the common axiom ‘the spirit of the laws is to be considered’. To adopt it is to give way to the torrent of opinions. This may seem a paradox to vulgar minds, which are more strongly affected by the smallest disorder before their eyes, than by the most pernicious though remote consequences produced by one false principle adopted by a nation.
– Cesare Bonesana Marchese di Beccaria (1738-1794) |
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Tag Archives: opinions
John F. Kennedy – The great enemy of truth
 For the great enemy of truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the clichés of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
– John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) |
John Locke – New opinions are always suspect
 New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.
– John Locke (1632-1704) |
Ralph Waldo Emerson – It is easy to live after the world’s opinion
 It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) |
Fred Astaire – When working on choreography
 When working on my choreography I am not always receptive to outside suggestions or opinions. I believe that if you have something in mind in the way of a creation, such as a new dance, a sequence, or an effect, you are certain to come up with inaccurate criticism and damaging results if you go around asking for opinions.
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Blaise Pascal – The queen of error
 That queen of error, whom we call fancy and opinion, is the more deceitful because she does not always deceive. She would be the infallible rule of truth if she were the infallible rule of falsehood; but being only most frequently in error, she gives no evidence of her real quality, for she marks with the same character both that which is true and that which is false.
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Friedrich Nietzsche – The snake which cannot cast its skin
 The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.
– Friedrich Nietzsche (Oct 15, 1844-Aug 25, 1900) |
Steve Jobs – Do not waste your limited time
 Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary
– Steve Jobs (1955-2011) |
Ralph Waldo Emerson – Meek young men group up in libraries
| Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views, which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries when they wrote these books.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) |
David Hume – Government founded only on opinion
 It is on opinion only that government is founded; and this maxim extends to the most despotic and most military governments, as well as to the most free and most popular.
– David Hume (1711-1776) |
Oscar Wilde – Most people are other people
 Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.
– Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) |
Bertrand Russell – Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion
 Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
– Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) |
