For dull, unreflective, merely instinctive as the ordinary man may seem, he has nevertheless, as a quite indispensable appendage, a head that in some degree considers and computes; a lamp or rushlight of understanding has been given him, which, through whatever dim, besmoked and strangely diffractive media it may shine, is the ultimate guiding light of his whole path; and here, as well as there, now as at all times in man’s history, Opinion rules the world.

— Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), English writer