The majority have no other reason for their opinions than that they are the fashion.
Interpretation
People often form opinions based on trends rather than their own reasoning.
This quote by Samuel Johnson suggests that many people's beliefs and opinions are not based on thoughtful consideration, but rather on social norms and trends. Johnson criticizes the lack of independent thought, implying that individuals conform to what is popular or fashionable, leading to shallow understanding and superficial beliefs.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the impact of social media on public opinion.
To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.
A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.
I was the Jane Roe of Roe vs. Wade, but Jane Roe has been laid to rest.
A tragic situation exists precisely when virtue does not triumph but when it is still felt that man is nobler than the forces which destroy him.
Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.
I'm a private intellectual, not a public one.
If it's fiction, then it better be true.
When I go to Afghanistan, I realize I've been spared, due to a random genetic lottery, by being born to people who had the means to get out. Every time I go to Afghanistan I am haunted by that.
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