Famous quotes containing the words public opinion, public, opinion and/or polls:
“Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government, practically just so much.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“Nothing is so foolish, they say, as for a man to stand for office and woo the crowd to win its vote, buy its support with presents, court the applause of all those fools and feel self-satisfied when they cry their approval, and then in his hour of triumph to be carried round like an effigy for the public to stare at, and end up cast in bronze to stand in the market place.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)
“How can a man be satisfied to entertain an opinion merely, and enjoy it? Is there any enjoyment in it, if his opinion is that he is aggrieved? If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with knowing that you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see that you are never cheated again.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The polls say we are within three points. We haven’t made many converts, but we sure have made a lot of undecided.”
—Jeremy Larner, U.S. screenwriter. Lucas (Peter Boyle)