Walter Lippmann quotes - page 3

In a free society the state does not administer the affairs of men. It administers justice among men who conduct their own affairs. (Walter Lippmann)
Most men, after a little freedom, have preferred authority with the consoling assurances and the economy of effort it brings. View quote
Walter Lippmann
In government offices which are sensitive to the vehemence and passion of mass sentiment public men have no sure tenure. They are in effect perpetual office seekers, always on trial for their political lives, always required to court their restless constituents. View quote
Walter Lippmann
The private citizen, beset by partisan appeals for the loan of his Public Opinion, will soon see, perhaps, that these appeals are not a compliment to his intelligence, but an imposition on his good nature and an insult to his sense of evidence. View quote
Walter Lippmann
Success makes men rigid and they tend to exalt stability over all the other virtues; tired of the effort of willing they become fanatics about conservatism. View quote
Walter Lippmann
What we call a democratic society might be defined for certain purposes as one in which the majority is always prepared to put down a revolutionary minority. View quote
Walter Lippmann
The study of error is not only in the highest degree prophylactic, but it serves as a stimulating introduction to the study of truth. View quote
Walter Lippmann
Democracy is much too important to be left to public opinion. View quote
Walter Lippmann
The present crisis of Western democracy is a crisis in journalism. View quote
Walter Lippmann
There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil. View quote
Walter Lippmann
Private property was the original source of freedom. It still is its main ballpark. (Walter Lippmann)
Between ourselves and our real natures we interpose that wax figure of idealizations and selections which we call our character. View quote
Walter Lippmann
Ignore what a man desires and you ignore the very source of his power. View quote
Walter Lippmann
You cannot endow even the best machine with initiative; the jolliest steamroller will not plant flowers. View quote
Walter Lippmann
This is one of the paradoxes of the democratic movement - that it loves a crowd and fears the individuals who compose it - that the religion of humanity should have no faith in human beings. View quote
Walter Lippmann
True opinions can prevail only if the facts to which they refer are known; if they are not known, false ideas are just as effective as true ones, if not a little more effective. View quote
Walter Lippmann
Run against the grain of a nation's genius and see where you get with your laws. View quote
Walter Lippmann
The wiser a man is, it seems to me, the more vividly he can see the future as part of the evolving present. He doesn't break the flow of life, he directs it, hastens it, but preserves its continuity. View quote
Walter Lippmann
Certainly he is not of the generation that regards honesty as the best policy. However, he does regard it as a policy. View quote
Walter Lippmann
The writers who have nothing to say are the ones you can buy the others have too high a price. View quote
Walter Lippmann
Love endures only when the lovers love many things together and not merely each other. (Walter Lippmann)
In the blood of the martyrs to intolerance are the seeds of unbelief. View quote
Walter Lippmann
People that are orthodox when they are young are in danger of being middle-aged all their lives. View quote
Walter Lippmann
When men are brought face to face with their opponents, forced to listen and learn and mend their ideas, they cease to be children and savages and begin to live like civilized men. Then only is freedom a reality, when men may voice their opinions because they must examine their opinions. View quote
Walter Lippmann
A free press is not a privilege but an organic necessity in a great society. ...Without criticism and reliable and intelligent reporting, the government cannot govern. For there is no adequate way in which it can keep itself informed about what the people of the country are thinking and doing and wanting. View quote
Walter Lippmann