Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Opinion
Where an opinion is general, it is usually correct.
Jane Austen—Mansfield Park. Ch. XI.
Facts are cheels that winna ding,
An’ downa be disputed.
Burns—A Dream.
Sure ’tis an orthodox opinion,
That grace is founded in dominion.
Butler—Hudibras. Pt. I. Canto III. L. 1,173.
With books and money placed, for show
Like nest eggs, to make clients lay,
And for his false opinion pay.
Butler—Hudibras. Pt. III. Canto III. L. 624.
For most men (till by losing rendered sager)
Will back their own opinions by a wager.
Byron—Beppo. St. 27.
Nor prints of Precedent for poore men’s facts.
George Chapman—Bussy d’Ambois. Act I. Sc. 1.
Omni autem in re consensio omnium gentium lex naturæ putanda est.
But in every matter the consensus of opinion among all nations is to be regarded as the law of nature.
Cicero—Tusc. Quæst. I. 13. 30.
Stiff in opinion, always in the wrong.
Dryden—Absalom and Achitophel. I. 545.
As the saying is, So many heades, so many wittes.
Queen Elizabeth—Godly Meditacyon of the Christian Sowle. (1548).
Intolerant only of intolerance.
I. S. S. G. in Fraser’s Mag. Aug., 1863. Article on Mr. Buckle in the East.
It is not often that an opinion is worth expressing, which cannot take care of itself.
Holmes—Medical Essays. 211.
Denique non omnes eadem mirantur amantque.
All men do not, in fine, admire or love the same thing.
Horace—Epistles. II. 2. 58.
Monuments of the safety with which errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
Thomas Jefferson—First Inaugural Address. March 4, 1801.
Dogmatism is puppyism come to its full growth.
Jerrold—Man Made of Money. In the Wit and Opinions of Jerrold. P. 28. Attributed to Dean Mansel by Burgon in Lives of Twelve Good Men.
How long halt ye between two opinions?
I Kings. XVIII. 21.
We hardly find any persons of good sense save those who agree with us.
La Rochefoucauld—Maxims. 347.
The deep slumber of a decided opinion.
Thoughts for the Cloister and Crowd. London, 1835. P. 21. Quoted by Mill—Liberty.
Even opinion is of force enough to make itself to be espoused at the expense of life.
Montaigne—Of Good and Evil. Ch. XL.
There never was in the world two opinions alike, no more than two hairs, or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity.
Montaigne—Essays. Of the Resemblance of Children to their Fathers.
Il opine du bonnet comme un moine en Sorbonne.
He adopts the opinion of others like a monk in the Sorbonne.
Pascal—Lettres Provinciales. II.
La force est la reine du monde, et non pas l’opinion; mais l’opinion est celle qui use de la force.
Force and not opinion is the queen of the world; but it is opinion that uses the force.
Pascal—Pensées. Art. XXIV. 92.
Della opinione regina del mondo.
Opinion is the queen of the world.
Pascal quotes this as the title of an Italian work.
He (Cato) never gave his opinion in the Senate upon any other point whatever, without adding these words, “And, in my opinion Carthage should be destroyed.” [“Delenda est Carthago.”]
Plutarch—Life of Cato the Censor.
Some praise at morning what they blame at night,
But always think the last opinion right.
Pope—Essay on Criticism. Pt. II. L. 230.
I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.
Macbeth. Act I. Sc. 7. L. 32.
Opinion’s but a fool, that makes us scan
The outward habit by the inward man.
Pericles. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 56.
Facts are stubborn things.
Smollett. Trans. of Gil Blas. Bk. X. Ch. I. Elliot—Essay on Field Husbandry. P. 35.
“That was excellently observed,” say I when I read a passage in another where his opinion agrees with mine. When we differ, then I pronounce him to be mistaken.
Swift—Thoughts an Various Subjects.
Je connais quelqu’un qui a plus d’esprit que Napoléon, que Voltaire, que tous les ministres présents et futurs: c’est l’opinion.
I know where there is more wisdom than is found in Napoleon, Voltaire, or all the ministers present and to come—in public opinion.
Talleyrand—In the Chamber of Peers. (1821).
Quot homines, tot sententiæ; suus cuique mos.
So many men, so many opinions; everyone has his own fancy.
Terence—Phormio. II. 3, 14. Same idea in Gascoigne—Glass of Government.
Matters of fact, as Mr. Budgell somewhere observes, are very stubborn things.
In copy of the Will of Matthew Tindal. P. 23. (1733).