In a Society in which there is no law, and in theory no compulsion, the only arbiter of behaviour is public opinion. But public opinion, because of the tremendous urge to conformity in gregarious animals, is less tolerant than any system of law. When human beings are governed by "thou shalt not", the individual can practise a certain amount of eccentricity: when they are supposedly governed by "love" or "reason", he is under continuous pressure to make him behave and think in exactly the same way as everyone else.
quote by George Orwell
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And to say that society ought to be governed by the opinion of the wisest and best, though true, is useless. Whose opinion is to decide who are the wisest and best?
quote by Thomas Babington
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Political realism believes that politics, like society in general, is governed by objective laws that have their roots in human nature. In order to improve society it is first necessary to understand the laws by which society lives. The operation of these laws being impervious to our preferences, men will challenge them only at the risk of failure. Realism, believing as it does in the objectivity of the laws of politics, must also believe in the possibility of developing a rational theory that reflects, however imperfectly and one-sidedly, these objective laws. It believes also, then, in the possibility of distinguishing in politics between truth and opinion — between what is true objectively and rationally, supported by evidence and illuminated by reason, and what is only a subjective judgment, divorced from the facts as they are and informed by prejudice and wishful thinking.
quote by Hans Morgenthau
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Publicity is a great purifier because it sets in action the forces of public opinion, and in this country public opinion controls the courses of the nation.
quote by Charles Evans Hughes
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Whatever is right can be achieved through the irresistible power of awakened and informed public opinion. Our object, therefore, is not to enquire whether a thing can be done, but whether it ought to be done, to so exert the forces of publicity that public opinion will compel it be done.
quote by William Randolph Hearst
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What we need are not prohibitory marriage laws, but a reformed society, an educated public opinion which will teach individual duty in these matters.
quote by Alfred Russel Wallace
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I believe if a private citizen is able to affect public opinion in a constructive way he doesn't have to be an elected public servant to perform a public service.
quote by Warren Beatty
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Whatever Have the Governed Become?
What ever have the governed become?
Mere puppets fed some grain
Of fancy lies as elections come
As though they lack some needed brain?
What ever end shall the governed be,
Mere numbers on the survey scale?
Pressed upon and taxed so freely
To pay for debts when leaders fail?
Why does the governed keep so silent
Accepting all in meek obedience
When in their hearts Protest is bent
On shouting out their very Conscience?
No, the governed will speak and rule
No more of lies and sheer Deception
Governed we are and we're not fools
We will not cower in the face of Corruption!
poem by Cynthia Buhain-Baello
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The world is governed by opinion.
quote by William Ellery Channing
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It is precisely the purpose of the public opinion generated by the press to make the public incapable of judging, to insinuate into it the attitude of someone irresponsible, uninformed.
quote by Walter Benjamin
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There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.
quote by Winston Churchill
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It is not at all clear how much the media influences public opinion and how much public opinion influences the media.
quote by Bruce Jackson
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What we seek is the reign of law, based upon the consent of the governed and sustained by the organized opinion of mankind.
quote by Woodrow Wilson
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Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character had abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and courage which it contained.
quote by John Stuart Mill
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Public and employer opinion often defeat society's best interests with a prejudice against middle-aged women.
quote by Kate Smith
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Mob law is the most forcible expression of an abnormal public opinion; it shows that society is rotten to the core.
quote by Timothy Thomas Fortune
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In the long run, much public opinion is made in the universities; ideas generated there filter down through the teaching profession and the students into the general public.
quote by B. Carroll Reece
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Government, is the last analysis, is organized opinion. Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad government.
quote by William Lyon Mackenzie King
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We have hardly an adequate idea how all-powerful law is in forming public opinion, in giving tone and character to the mass of society.
quote by Ernestine Rose
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The bed is now as public as the dinner table and governed by the same rules of formal confrontation.
quote by Angela Carter
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Government, in the last analysis, is organized opinion. Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad government.
quote by Mackenzie King
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