– "We would not let ourselves be burned to death for our opinions: we are not sure enough of them for that. But perhaps for the right to have our opinions and to change them." – Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German-Swiss philosopher and writer.
– "The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind." – William Blake (1757-1827) British poet and painter.
– "Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it." – Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Third president of the United States.
– "To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." – Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Third president of the United States.
– "The majority have no other reason for their opinions than that they are the fashion." – Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) British author.
– "Opinions are formed in a process of open discussion and public debate, and where no opportunity for the forming of opinions exists, there may be moods –moods of the masses and moods of individuals, the latter no less fickle and unreliable than the former –but no opinion." – Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-born American political philosopher.
– "Where an opinion is general, it is usually correct." – Jane Austen (1775-1817) English novelist, author of "Sense and Sensibility
– "Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent." – Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American politician.
– "Opinions are to the vast apparatus of social existence what oil is to machines: one does not go up to a turbine and pour machine oil over it; one applies a little to hidden spindles and joints that one has to know." – Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) German philosopher.