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.

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

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.

We also can’t try to take over and rebuild every country that falls into crisis. That’s not leadership; that’s a recipe for quagmire, spilling American blood and treasure that ultimately weakens us. It’s the lesson of Vietnam, of Iraq – and we should have learned it by now.

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.

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

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.

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

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

The polls show that concern over inequality among the general public rose pretty sharply after the Occupy movement started, very probably as a consequence. And there are other policy issues that came to the fore, which are significant.

Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult.

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

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.

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.

A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.

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.

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.

The Iraq War was the first conflict in western history in which an imperialist war was massively protested against before it had even been launched.

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

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

When I look at public opinion, I’m not far out of the mainstream. I’m in it, in many respects. In some respects, public opinion goes beyond anything I’ve ever said.

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.

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

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

I thought then, and I think now, that the invasion of Iraq was unnecessary and unjust. And I think the premises on which it was launched were false.

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

Public opinion in Egypt is very antagonistic to the way the dictatorship, Mubarak dictatorship, interpreted relations with Israel. Very antagonistic.

There’s backlash about everything I do.

All movements go too far.

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.

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?

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

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

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

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

I don’t believe that the public knows what it wants; this is the conclusion that I have drawn from my career.

For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion.

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

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

Voters quickly forget what a man says.

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.

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

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.

A President cannot always be popular.

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

I get to hear the really good or the really bad things in the press, but I don’t read it. I can afford to say that because public opinion does not drive U2’s audience.

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.

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

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.