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.
We humans have a tendency to see ourselves as completely different from other animals, and the way in which large segments of the public continue to reject the theory of evolution is just one symptom of that malaise.
Power is the ability to define phenomena, and make it act in a desired manner.
The difference between treason and patriotism is only a matter of dates.
Like bones to the human body, the axle to the wheel, the wing to the bird, and the air to the wing, so is liberty the essence of life. Whatever is done without it is imperfect.
He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.
Truth, for any man, is that which makes him a man.
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