Public Quotes, Quotations, and Sayings

25 Public Quotes
[1-25] 
“The proverbial wisdom of the populace in the streets, on the roads, and in the markets, instructs the ear of him who studies man more fully than a thousand rules ostentatiously arranged.”
Unattributed Author Quotes
Source: Proverbs, or the Manual of Wisdom, on the title page, printed for Tabart & Co., London (1804)
“Report uttered by the people is everywhere of great power.”
Aeschylus Quotes
Source: Agamemnon (938)
“We would not listen to those who were wont to say the voice of the people is the voice of God, for the voice of the mob is near akin to madness. [Lat., Nec audiendi sunt qui solent dicere vox populi, vox dei; cum tumultus vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit.]”
Alcuin (Albinus) Quotes
Source: Epistle to Charlemagne (vol. I, p. 191), (Froben's ed. 1771), also credited to Eadmer
“The voice of the people has about it something divine: for how otherwise can so many heads agree together as one? [Lat., Vox populi habet aliquid divinum: nam quomo do aliter tot capita in unum conspirare possint?]”
Francis Bacon Quotes
Source: 9, Laus, Existimatio
“. . . for thou art a stiff-necked people. . .”
Bible Quotes
Source: Exodus (ch. XXXIII, v. 3)
“The great unwashed.”
Bible Quotes
Source: Exodus (ch. XXXIII, v. 3)
“The individual is foolish; the multitude, for the moment is foolish, when they act without deliberation; but the species is wise, and, when time is given to it, as a species it always acts right.”
Edmund Burke Quotes
Source: in a speech, Reform of Representation in the House of Commons, May 7, 1782
“The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.”
Edmund Burke Quotes
Source: To Thomas Mercer
“The public! why, the public's nothing better than a great baby.”
Thomas Chalmers Quotes
Source: in a letter, quoted by Ruskin, "Sesame and Lilies", sec. I, 40
“The public! the public! how many fools does it require to make the public? [Fr., Le public! le public! combien faut-il de sots pour faire un public?]”
Thomas Chalmers Quotes
Source: in a letter, quoted by Ruskin, "Sesame and Lilies", sec. I, 40
“He who hangs on the errors of the ignorant multitude, must not be counted among great men. [Lat., Qui ex errore imperitae multitudinis pendet, hic in magnis viris non est habendus.]”
Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) Quotes
Source: De Officiis (I, 19)
“The rabble estimate few things according to their real value, most things according to their prejudices. [Lat., Vulgus ex veritate pauca, ex opinione multa aestimat.]”
Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) Quotes
Source: Oratio Pro Quinto Roscio Comoedo (X, 29)
“The fickle populace always change with the prince. [Lat., Mobile mutatur semper cum principe vulgus.]”
Claudian (Claudianus) Quotes
Source: De Quarto Consulatu Honorii Augusti Panegyris (CCCII)
“Hence ye profane; I hate ye all; Both the great vulgar, and the small.”
Abraham Cowley Quotes
Source: Of Greatness, translation of Horace, ode I, bk. III
“This many-headed monster, Multitude.”
Samuel Daniel Quotes
Source: History of the Civil War (bk. II, st. 13)
“The key of the fields (street). [Fr., La clef des champs.]”
Samuel Daniel Quotes
Source: History of the Civil War (bk. II, st. 13)
“The multitude is always in the wrong.”
Wentworth Dillon, Earl of Roscomon Quotes
Source: Essay on Translated Verse (l. 184)
“For who can be secure of private right, If sovereign sway may be dissolved by might? Nor is the people's judgment always true: The most may err as grossly as the few.”
John Dryden Quotes
Source: Absalom and Achitophel (pt. I, l. 779)
“The man in the street does not know a star in the sky.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes
Source: Conduct of Life--Worship
“It is a good part of sagacity to have known the foolish desires of the crowd and their unreasonable notions. [Lat., Bona prudentiae pars est nosse stultas vulgi cupiditates, et absurdas opiniones.]”
Desiderius Gerhard Erasmus Quotes
Source: De Utilitate Colloquiorum--Preface
“Classes and masses.”
Desiderius Gerhard Erasmus Quotes
Source: De Utilitate Colloquiorum--Preface
“I wish the crowd to feel itself well treated, Especially since it lives and lets me live. [Ger., Ich wunschte sehr, der Menge zu behagen, Besonders weil sie lebt und leben lasst.]”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
Source: Faust Vorspiel auf dem Theater (l. 5)
“He who serves the public is a poor animal; he worries himself to death and no one thanks him for it. [Ger., Wer dem Publicum dient, ist ein armes Thier; Er qualt sich ab, niemand bedankt sich dafur.]”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
Source: Spruche in Reimen (III)
“Knowing as "the man in the street" (as we call him as Newmarket) always does, the greatest secrets of kings, and being the confidant of their most hidden thoughts.”
Charles Cavendish Fulke Greville Quotes
Source: Memoirs
“No whispered rumours which the many spread can wholly perish.”
Hesiod Quotes
Source: Works and Days (I, 763)