“Truth put into metre sounds overwhelmingly true, and quotations can be tossed about like balls.”

Warns how rhyme can make platitude look like wisdom · Essay, The Future of Poetry, The Poetry Review, 1912

• Poetry
• Public Opinion
• Truth

“It is better to serve truth than the opinion of the people, who will know only what they see.”

Original: Il vaut mieux servir à la vérité qu'à l'opinion du peuple, qui ne veut sçavoir sinon ce qu'il void. — Independence of judgement against popular taste · Abrégé de l'art poétique français, 1565 (French)

• Courage
• Public Opinion
• Truth

“He only is a great man who can neglect the applause of the multitude and enjoy himself independent of its favor.”

Greatness defined as independence from the crowd's praise · The Spectator

• Greatness
• Independence
• Public Opinion

“Deep and serious thinkers have a difficult position before the public.”

Original: Tief und ernstlich denkende Menschen haben gegen das Publikum einen bösen Stand. — Goethe observes the tension between serious thought and the demands of public opinion. · Wilhelm Meister’s Journeyman Years (German)

• Public Opinion
• Society
• Thought

“Mankind is thus managed by the breath of Opinion, deluded by Errour, fired by Self-Conceit, and given up to be trained in all the courses of Vanity, till Scorn or Poverty come upon us.”

A chain from public opinion to eventual disgrace · The Spectator, No. 460, 18 August 1712

• Pride
• Public Opinion
• Vanity

“In public life, once a person has constructed his character and hears its echo, he plays the character, or rather the character plays him.”

Original: Dans toute carrière publique, une fois que l'on a construit son personnage, et que le bruit qu'il fait revient à son auteur, celui-ci joue son personnage, ou plutôt son personnage le joue. — Public identity can become a role that eventually controls the person who originally created it. · Cahiers (French)

• Identity
• Public Opinion
• Reputation