It is safest to take the unpopular side in the first instance. Transit from the unpopular is easy... but from the popular to the unpopular is so steep and rugged that it is impossible to maintain it.

There are many qualities that make a great leader. But having strong beliefs, being able to stick with them through popular and unpopular times, is the most important characteristic of a great leader.

The only possible effect one can have on the world is through unpopular ideas.

I was unpopular my whole life.

If Christians will obey the instructions given to them by Christ and his inspired apostles, they will adorn the religion of the Bible, and save themselves much perplexity and severe trials, which they attribute to their afflictions in consequence of believing unpopular truth.

I try to buy shares of unpopular companies when they look like road kill and sell them when they've been polished up a bit.

President Lincoln chose to fight a bloody and unpopular war because he believed the enemy had to be defeated. He was right.

Commitment to the rule of law provides a basic assurance that people can know what to expect whether what they do is popular or unpopular at the time.

The courage in journalism is sticking up for the unpopular, not the popular.

You've got to make tough decisions, sometimes unpopular decisions... Whatever it is, if it's the right move at the right time, you've got to be also willing to make mistakes.

Governors of both political parties face a stark choice between unpopular tax increases and drastic cuts in Medicaid, education, public safety and other essential services.

When I arrived in France aged 20, I marched against the death penalty, which was an unpopular thing to protest against at the time.

You can only get really unpopular decisions through if the electorate is convinced of the value of the environment. That's what natural history programmes should be for.

A lot of the progress in machine learning - and this is an unpopular opinion in academia - is driven by an increase in both computing power and data. An analogy is to building a space rocket: You need a huge rocket engine, and you need a lot of fuel.

I was quiet in high school and relatively unpopular, so being noticed is not something that I'm used to.

I've had strong opinions probably since I was born. It makes you unpopular, but what can you do?

Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.

A free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.

Winston Churchill was one of the most unpopular politicians in the late '30s and by the mid-'40s he was considered one the greatest statesmen, possibly of all time. I'm not comparing myself. I'm just saying that controversies come and go, but the important thing is sticking to your principles and persevering through those controversies.

When I was growing up, there were two things that were unpopular in my house. One was me, and the other was my guitar.