Famous quotes containing the words public opinion, public, opinion and/or polls:
“Constitutional statutes ... which embody the settled public opinion of the people who enacted them and whom they are to govern—can always be enforced. But if they embody only the sentiments of a bare majority, pronounced under the influence of a temporary excitement, they will, if strenuously opposed, always fail of their object; nay, they are likely to injure the cause they are framed to advance.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“To set up as a standard of public morality a notion which can neither be defined nor conceived is to open the door to every kind of tyranny.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)
“Prejudice. A vagrant opinion without visible means of support.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)
“The total collapse of the public opinion polls shows that this country is in good health. A country that developed an airtight system of finding out in advance what was in people’s minds would be uninhabitable.”
—E.B. (Elwyn Brooks)