Public opinion's always in advance of the law.
--
Windows, Act I (1922)John Galsworthy
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To legislate in advance of public opinion is merely to produce anarchy instead of maintaining law and order.
Alexander Mackenzie
I don't think that the figure 2000 is an important milestone, in the first place. And in the second place, I don't think that this can be determined by public opinion. The righteousness of the war was not demonstrated by public support for it in the beginning, nor its wisdom altered by the evident decline in public support for it. I don't pay attention to the opinion polls, or indeed to the casualty figures, because I know that this is an inevitable war, a war that was going to have to happen — and was, in my opinion, both just and necessary.
Christopher Hitchens
Every man speaks of public opinion, and means by public opinion, public opinion minus his opinion.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton
The 'public' is a phantom, the phantom of an opinion supposed to exist in a vast number of persons who have no effective interrelation and though the opinion is not effectively present in the units. Such an opinion is spoken of as 'public opinion,' a fiction which is appealed to by individuals and by groups as supporting their special views. It is impalpable, illusory, transient; "'tis here, 'tis there, 'tis gone"; a nullity which can nevertheless for a moment endow the multitude with power to uplift or destroy.
Karl Jaspers
Like a hawk about to devour its prey, the wings of public opinion hover above the head of the judge. All the Court’s decisions are disguised and indirect forms of pleading at the bar of public opinion.
Malcolm de Chazal
Galsworthy, John
Galt, John
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