All Walter Lippmann Quotes
- Yet this corporate being, though so insubstantial to our senses, binds, in Burkes words, a man to his country with ties which though light as… Air
- For in the absence of debate unrestricted utterance leads to the degradation of opinion. By a kind of Greshams law the more rational is overcome… Absence
- The central drama of our age is how the Western nations and the Asian peoples are to find a tolerable basis of co-existence. Age
- Franklin D. Roosevelt is no crusader. He is no tribune of the people. He is no enemy of entrenched privilege. He is a pleasant man… Any
- I generalized rashly: That is what kills political writing, this absurd pretence that you are delivering a great utterance. You never do. You are just… Absurd
- Unless democracy is to commit suicide by consenting to its own destruction, it will have to find some formidable answer to those who come to… Answer
- In really hard times the rules of the game are altered. The inchoate mass begins to stir. It becomes potent, and when it strikes, it… Altered
- The opposition is indispensable. A good statesman, like any other sensible human being, always learns more from his opponents than from his fervent supporters. For… Always Learns
- The man who will follow precedent, but never create one, is merely an obvious example of the routineer. You find him desperately numerous in the… Absolutely
- The decay of decency in the modern age, the rebellion against law and good faith, the treatment of human beings as things, as the mere… Age
- Modern men are afraid of the past. It is a record of human achievement, but its other face is human defeat. Achievement
- The ordinary politician has a very low estimate of human nature. In his daily life he comes into contact chiefly with persons who want to… Art
- Successful democratic politicians are insecure and intimidated men. They advance politically only as they placate, appease, bribe, seduce, bamboozle, or otherwise manage to manipulate the… Active
- The chief element in the art of statesmanship under modern conditions is the ability to elucidate the confused and clamorous interests which converge upon the… Ability
- People who are tremendously concerned about their identification, their individuality, their self-expression, or their sense of humor, always seem to be missing the very things… Always Seem
- Men can know more than their ancestors did if they start with a knowledge of what their ancestors had already learned....That is why a society… Already Learned
- What a myth never contains is the critical power to separate its truth from its errors. Contains
- Every fairly intelligent person is aware that the price of respectability is a muffled soul bent on the trivial and the mediocre. Aware
- At the core of every moral code there is a picture of human nature, a map of the universe, and a version of history. To… Apply
- The smashing of idols is in itself such a preoccupation that it is almost impossible for the iconoclast to look clearly into a future when… Almost Impossible
- Genius sees the dynamic purpose first, find reasons afterward. Afterward
- It is all very well to talk about being the captain of your soul. It is hard, and only a few heroes, saints, and geniuses… All
- Only the very rarest of princes can endure even a little criticism, and few of them can put up with even a pause in the… Adulation
- The essential discovery of maturity has little if anything to do with information about the names, the locations, and the sequence of facts; it is… Acquiring
- The search for moral guidance which shall not depend upon external authority has invariably ended in the acknowledgment of some new authority. Acknowledgment