If you want to know your true opinion of someone, watch the effect produced in you by the first sight read more

If you want to know your true opinion of someone, watch the effect produced in you by the first sight of a letter from him.

I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they're read more

I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they're good or there because they're lucky.

The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race; posterity as read more

The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's read more

If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good

Opinions have vested interests just as men have.

Opinions have vested interests just as men have.

As a leader... I have always endeavored to listen to what each and every person in a discussion had to read more

As a leader... I have always endeavored to listen to what each and every person in a discussion had to say before venturing my own opinion. Oftentimes, my own opinion will simply represent a con-sensus of what I heard in the discussion. I always remember the axiom: a leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.

In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.

In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.

The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we hold of ourselves with the appalling things that read more

The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we hold of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us.

It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also read more

It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought.