Most Americans think there’s already universal background checks. They don’t understand why there wouldn’t be a background check to purchase a weapon.

We are not trying to entertain the critics. I’ll take my chances with the public.

Guns are bad, I tell you.

I think the American people, with some justification, think that most politicians live in la-la land.

There’s backlash about everything I do.

I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people.

American society is a sort of flat, fresh-water pond which absorbs silently, without reaction, anything which is thrown into it.

The more people I reach, the more people there are that have opinions about me. Not everyone loves me, but I have to be okay no matter what they think about me.

When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that American society has found one more way to destroy itself.

You can be a Polish American, or an Arab American, or a Greek American but you can’t be English American. Why not?

There is probably a perverse pride in my administration… that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who’s occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can’t be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.

The public is strongly in favor of the Kyoto Protocols, so strongly in favor that a majority of Bush voters thought that he was in favor of it. They are simply unaware.

Generally speaking, the public appetite for criminal justice policy is just tough talk.

No policy that does not rest upon some philosophical public opinion can be permanently maintained.

When I was crossing the border into Canada, they asked if I had any firearms with me. I said, ‚Well, what do you need?‘

The policemen or soldiers are only a gun in the establishments hand. They make the racist secure in his racism.

Only Americans can hurt America.

He who molds the public sentiment… makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make.

A President cannot always be popular.

The public is the only critic whose opinion is worth anything at all.

Two million felons have tried to buy a gun and, because of the background check, have been denied.

Do countries with strong gun control laws have lower murder rates? Only if you cherry-pick the data.

Painting is a faith, and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion.

I think, in politics, half the people are gonna like you, and half the people are not gonna like you, no matter what you do or what you say… It’s like there are no right answers. If there were, everyone would choose the right answers. They’re all opinions.

I heard that when Christina Aguilera went back to her prom, people, like, booed her. I can’t imagine going through that. If you know that’s going to happen, why put yourself in that situation? I’d rather play for 20,000 screaming people, you know?

One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.

The American people abhor a vacuum.

Fixing a broken immigration system. Protecting our kids from gun violence. Equal pay for equal work, paid leave, raising the minimum wage. All these things still matter to hardworking families; they are still the right thing to do; and I will not let up until they get done.

I’ve been talked about by a lot better people than the general public.

Americans want students to get the best education possible. We want schools to prepare children to become good citizens and members of a prosperous American economy.

For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion.

I don’t think we need more gun control laws.

As for gun control advocates, I have no hope whatever that any facts whatever will make the slightest dent in their thinking – or lack of thinking.

Voters quickly forget what a man says.

I used to wish there was a useful term for those of us who thought American power should be used to remove psychopathic dictators.

Every country when they have Olympics, a lot of people come out opposed.

People should not be in a position where their children have access to weapons and ammunition.

A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.

Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult.

How easy it is to govern when one follows a system of consulting the will of the people and one holds as the only norm all the actions which contribute to the well being of the people.

When President George W. Bush attempted to reform Social Security, that proposal was more unpopular with Americans than the Iraq war. People love their entitlements.

The public doesn’t mind people living together without being married, providing they don’t overdo it.

The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

Leaders are responsible not for running public opinion polls but for the consequences of their actions.

We don’t want two-tier people in America. Those who are legal but not citizens, and citizens.

All movements go too far.

Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States – old as well as new – North as well as South.

I have a very strict gun control policy: if there’s a gun around, I want to be in control of it.

You pick up some fans and a handful of haters along the way.

I’m lucky that, despite all the bad press I’ve had over the years, the public still seems to like me.

People are skeptical of many televangelists, and I’m sensitive to that.

A very large majority of the U.S. population is in favor of establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba and has been for a long time with some fluctuations. And even part of the business world is in favor of it, too. But the government won’t allow it.

I think we ought to raise the age at which juveniles can have a gun.

There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.

If the American people don’t love me, their descendants will.

I do not believe any of the statistical claims that are made about public opinion. I don’t see why anybody does.

One cannot wage war under present conditions without the support of public opinion, which is tremendously molded by the press and other forms of propaganda.

Public opinion can be influential, the media can be influential.

The NICS database has holes big enough to drive a Mack truck through.

When Brexiters told the public that people were exaggerating, that there would be a financial meltdown, I think it’s been proven that they were not exaggerating.

There’s a tremendous gap between public opinion and public policy.