Walter Lippmann / 1889–1974 / New York, New York, USA / Journalist, Commentator, Author
The Civilized State
The first principle of a civilized state is that the power is legitimate only when it is under contract.
An Inquiry into the Principles of the Good Society (1937).
The final test of a civilization is whether or not it can persuade men to take the time and the trouble to think for themselves.
A Preface to Morals (1929).
Freedom
The truth is that men are tired of liberty.
A Preface to Morals (1929).
Most men, after a little freedom, have preferred authority with the consoling assurances and the economy of effort it brings.
A Preface to Morals (1929).
Good Government
The final test of a good government is whether it can protect the interests of the country against the greed and selfishness of powerful private interests.
The Good Society (1937).
Journalism
There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil.
Liberty and the News (1920).
The art of newspaper paragraphing is to stroke a platitude until it purrs like an epigram.
A Preface to Morals (1929).
The news of the day as it reaches the newspaper office is an incredible medley of fact, propaganda, rumor, suspicion, clues, hopes, and fears, and the task of selecting and ordering that news is one of the truly sacred and priestly offices in a democracy.
Liberty and the News (1920).
The news and truth are not the same thing, and must be clearly distinguished.
Public Opinion (1922).
Leadership
The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.
Men of Destiny (1927).
Politics
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.
A Preface to Politics (1913).
The opposition is indispensable. A good statesman, like any other sensible human being, always learns more from his opposition than from his fervent supporters.
A Preface to Politics (1913).
People do not want words—they want the sound of battle.
A Preface to Politics (1913).
The very first lesson that ought to be taught us when we are old enough to understand it, is that we live in a world which is so full of interests that we cannot possibly get to know them all.
Public Opinion (1922).
Public Opinion
Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.
Liberty and the News (1920).
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.
Public Opinion (1922).
The public is not a blank sheet to be written on. It is a complex and vital organization that takes more time to reach and understand than does a congressman or a senator.
Public Opinion (1922).
The more vigorously the proposition is denied, the more often it is repeated, the more fervently it is believed.
Public Opinion (1922).
It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.”
A Preface to Morals (1929).
Public Servants
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.
Public Opinion (1922).
Reform
Unless the reformer can invent something which substitutes attractive virtues for attractive vices, he will fail.
The Phantom Public (1925).
Revolution
In the end, the revolution devours its own children. It creates a new set of vested interests and a new hierarchy of power. It leaves behind a new elite and a new proletariat. It offers new opportunities for greed, deception, and cruelty.
The Phantom Public (1925).
Scientism
The radical novelty of modern science lies precisely in the rejection of the belief, which is at the heart of all popular religion, that the forces which move the stars and atoms are contingent upon the preferences of the human heart.
A Preface to Morals (1929).