When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.
Thomas Jefferson

Public behavior is merely private character writ large.
Stephen Covey

I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone else.
Marilyn Monroe

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

The Public is merely a multiplied "me."
Mark Twain

Public opinion in this country is everything.
Abraham Lincoln

Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.
Abraham Lincoln

With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.
Abraham Lincoln

The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.
Abraham Lincoln

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

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

The first mistake in public business is the going into it.
Benjamin Franklin

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.
Benjamin Franklin

God is, even though the whole world deny him. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.
Mohandas Gandhi

Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.
Mohandas Gandhi

For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion.
Mohandas Gandhi

A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today - and in fact we have forgotten.
John F. Kennedy

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president... is morally treasonable to the American public.
Theodore Roosevelt

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).
Ayn Rand

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.
Ayn Rand