Popularity

For my part I hold that what is popular is often positively base, and that, if ever it is not base, this is only when the multitude happens to applaud something that is right and praiseworthy in and for itself; which even so is not called "moral" (honorable) because it is widely applauded, but because it is of such a nature that even if men were unaware of its existance, or never spoke of it, it would still be worthy of praise for its own beauty and loveliness. Cicero On Final Good and Evil Rackham trans., p137.