To us he is no more a person Now but a whole climate of opinion.

-Auden,W(ystan) H(ugh)
  'In Memory of Sigmund Freud', stanza17.

It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such an opinion as is unworthy of him.

-Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans
  Essays, no.17,'Of Superstition'.

A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinion and uncommon abilities.

-Bagehot,Walter
Biographical Studies,'The Character of Sir Robert Peel'.

His opinion of himself, having once risen, remained at 'set fair'.

-Bennett, (Enoch) Arnold
The Card, ch.1.

Prejudice, n. Avagrant opinion without visible means of support.

-Bierce, Ambrose Gwinett
  The Cynic's Word Book. Retitled  The Devil's Dictionary (1911).

Es ist derVorzug und das Wesen der Starken, dass sie die groÞen Entscheidungsfragen stellen und zu ihnen klar Stellung nehmen k o« nnen. Die Schwachen mu«  ssen sich immer zwischen Alternativen entscheiden, die nicht die ihren sind. It is the nature, and the advantage, of strong people that they can bring out the crucial questions and form a clear opinion about them. The weak always have to decide between alternatives that are not their own.

-Bonhoeffer, Dietrich
Widerstand und Ergebung,'Ein paar Gedanken u«  ber Verschiedenes' (translated1953).

He that complies against his will Is of his own opinion still.

-Butler, Samuel
  Hudibras, pt.3, canto 3, l.547.

I am always of the opinionwith the learned, if they speak first.

-Congreve,William
  Incognita.

A journalist ishardlyanauthorityuponanythingöunless perhapsupontheappraisal of the drift of public opinion.

-Dafoe,JohnW
  Convocation address at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, May. Quoted in Murray Donnelly Dafoe of the Free Press (1968).

Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.

-Democritus
Diogenes Laertius, vol.9.

'Oldgirl,'said Mr Bagnet,'givehimmyopinion.You know it.'

-Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam
^3  Bleak House, ch.27.

Mr Podsnap was well to do, and stood very high in Mr Podsnap's opinion.

-Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam
^5  Our Mutual Friend, bk.1, ch.11.

Party is organized opinion.

-Disraeli, Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
  Speech, Oxford, 25 Nov.

They, who would combat general authority with particular opinion, must first establish themselves a reputation of understanding better than other men.

-Dryden,John
  'The  Author's  Apology for Heroic Poetry and Heroic Licence', an essay prefacing State of Innocence, a libretto based on Paradise Lost.

When I meet a historian who cannot think that there have been great men, great men moreover in politics, I feel myself in the presence of a bad historian; and there are times when I incline to judge all historians by their opinion of Winston Churchillöwhether they can see that, no matter how much better the details, often damaging, of man and career become known, he still remains, quite simply, a great man.

-Elton, Sir Geoffrey Rudolph
  Political History, ch.2.

Are you at ease now? Is your heart at rest? Now you have got a shadow, an umbrella To keep the scorching world's opinion From your fair credit. 328

-Fo, Dario
  Rule a Wife and Have a Wife, act 3, sc.1. Italian      playwright       and       actor-manager,       whose often

Busy opinion is an idle fool.

-Ford,John
  ' Tis Pity She's a Whore, act 5, sc.3.

Polling is merely an instrument for gauging public opinion.When a president or any other leader pays attention to poll results, he is, in effect, paying attention to the views of the people. Any other interpretation is nonsense.

-Gallup, George Horace
  NBC news,1 Dec.

I was ever of the opinion, that the honest man who married and brought up a large family, did more service than he who continued single and only talked of population.

-Goldsmith, Oliver
  The Vicar of  Wakefield, ch.1.

TheTimes is, we suppose, entitled to the character it gives of itself, of being the'leading journal of Europe', and is perhaps the greatest engine of temporary opinion in the world.

-Hazlitt,William
  In the Edinburgh Review, May.