Democracy is much too important to be left to public opinion. Walter Lippmann More Quotes by Walter Lippmann More Quotes From Walter Lippmann Ours is a problem in which deception has become organized and strong; where truth is poisoned at its source; one in which the skill of the shrewdest brains is devoted to misleading a bewildered people. Walter Lippmann skills strong people It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf. Walter Lippmann music positive inspirational There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies. Walter Lippmann community mean lying He has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable, or dangerous to do so. Walter Lippmann dangerous duty honor When all think alike, then no one is thinking Walter Lippmann funny-inspirational creativity success It is often very illuminating...to ask yourself how you got at the facts on which you base your opinion. Who actually saw, heard, felt, counted, named the thing, about which you have an opinion? Walter Lippmann saws opinion facts The press does not tell us what to think, it tells us what to think about. Walter Lippmann presses doe thinking The news and the truth are not the same thing. Walter Lippmann news What the public does is not to express its opinions but to align itself for or against a proposal. If that theory is accepted, we must abandon the notion that democratic government can be the direct expression of the will of the people. We must abandon the notion that the people govern. Instead, we must adopt the theory that, by their occasional mobilizations as a majority, people support or oppose the individuals who actually govern. We must say that the popular will does not direct continuously but that it intervenes occasionally. Walter Lippmann government expression people Successful ... politicians are insecure and intimidated men. They advance politically only as they placate, appease, bribe, seduce, bamboozle or otherwise manage to manipulate the demanding and threatening elements in their constituencies. Walter Lippmann insecure successful men The present crisis of Western democracy is a crisis in journalism. Walter Lippmann journalism crisis democracy There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil. Walter Lippmann journalism devil law To create a minimum standard of life below which no human being can fall is the most elementary duty of the democratic state. Walter Lippmann standards states fall 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. Walter Lippmann intelligent country thinking 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 instruments of power and ambition, is without a doubt the consequence of the decay of the belief in man as something more than an animal animated by highly conditioned reflexes and chemical reactions. For, unless man is something more than that, he has no rights that anyone is bound to respect, and there are no limitations upon his conduct which he is bound to obey. Walter Lippmann ambition animal men All achievement should be measured in human happiness. Walter Lippmann achievement should happiness Before you can begin to think about politics at all, you have to abandon the notion that there is a war between good men and bad men. Walter Lippmann men war thinking The thinker dies, but his thoughts are beyond the reach of destruction. Men are mortal; but ideas are immortal. Walter Lippmann time men thinking We say that the truth will make us free. Yes, but that truth is a thousand truths which grow and change. Walter Lippmann truth-is thousand truth The opposition is indispensable. A good statesman, like any other sensible human being, always learns more from his opposition than from his fervent supporters. Walter Lippmann glowing learning politics
