The first principle of a civilized state is that power is legitimate only when it is under contract. Walter Lippmann More Quotes by Walter Lippmann More Quotes From Walter Lippmann Where there is no danger of overt action there is rarely any interference with freedom. That is why there has so often been amazing freedom of opinion within an aristocratic class which at the same time sanctioned the ruthless suppression of heterodox opinion among the common people. When the Inquisition was operating most effectively against the bourgeois who had lapsed into heresy, the princes of the Church and the nobles enjoyed the freedom of the Renaissance. Walter Lippmann churchclasspeople The emancipated woman has to fight something worse than the crusted prejudices of her uncles; she has to fight the bewilderment in her own soul. Walter Lippmann unclesfightingsoul A better distribution of incomes would increase that efficiency by diverting a great fund of wealth from the useless to the useful members of society. To cut off the income of the useless will not impair their efficiency. They have none to impair. It will, in fact, compel them to acquire a useful function. Walter Lippmann cuttinguselessfacts The life of a savage is beset by glowering terrors: from birth to death he lives in an animated world; where the sun and the stars, sticks, stones, and rivers are obsessed with his fate. He is busy all the time in a ritual designed to propitiate the abounding jealousies of nature. For his world is magical and capricious, the simplest thing is occult. Walter Lippmann fatestarsrivers The prophecy of a world moving toward political unity is the light which guides all that is best, most vigorous, most truly alive in the work of our time. Walter Lippmann diversitylightmoving There is nothing disastrous in the temporary nature of our ideas. They are always that. But there may very easily be a train of evil in the self-deception which regards them as final. I think God will forgive us our skepticism sooner than our Inquisitions. Walter Lippmann selfideasthinking The true speech of man is idiomatic, if not of the earth and sky, then at least of the saloon and the bleachers. Walter Lippmann earthskymen The host of men who stand between a great thinker and the average man are not automatic transmitters. They work on the ideas; perhaps that is why a genius usually hates his disciples. Walter Lippmann hateaveragemen It is in time of peace that the value of life is fixed. The test of war reveals it. Walter Lippmann testslife-iswar Where all think alike, no one thinks very much. Walter Lippmann Love endures only when the lovers love many things together and not merely each other. 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. They are deprived of their independence. Democratic politicians rarely feel they can afford the luxury of telling the whole truth to the people. And since not telling it, though prudent, is uncomfortable, they find it easier if they themselves do not have to hear too often too much of the sour truth. The men under them who report and collect the news come to realize in their turn that it is safer to be wrong before it has become fashionable to be right. Walter Lippmann The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on. The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully. Walter Lippmann When all men think alike, no one thinks very much. Walter Lippmann Where all men think alike, no one thinks very much. Walter Lippmann verywherethinkmen A man has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable, or dangerous to do so. Walter Lippmann hemandangeroushonor Private property was the original source of freedom. It still is its main ballpark. Walter Lippmann stillpropertysourcefreedom
