Truth is one forever absolute, but opinion is truth filtered through the moods, the blood, the disposition of the spectator.

Truth is one forever absolute, but opinion is truth filtered through the moods, the blood, the disposition of the spectator.

The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.

The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.

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.

This is the test of your manhood: How much is there left in you after you have lost everything outside read more

This is the test of your manhood: How much is there left in you after you have lost everything outside of yourself?

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.

Opinions have vested interests just as men have.

Opinions have vested interests just as men have.

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.

The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.

The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.

One often contradicts an opinion when what is uncongenial is really the tone in which it was conveyed.

One often contradicts an opinion when what is uncongenial is really the tone in which it was conveyed.