Walter Lippmann Quotes

Most popular Walter Lippmann Quotes

When all think alike, then no one is thinking. - Walter Lippmann quote.
When all think alike, then no one is thinking.
— Walter Lippmann

thinking

Where all think alike, no one thinks very much. - Walter Lippmann quote.
Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.
— Walter Lippmann
The facts we see depend on where we are placed, and the habits of our eyes. - Walter Lippmann quote.
The facts we see depend on where we are placed, and the habits of our eyes.
— Walter Lippmann Public Opinion

facts

Many a time have I wanted to stop talking and find out what I really believed. - Walter Lippmann quote.
Many a time have I wanted to stop talking and find out what I really believed.
— Walter Lippmann

silence

It requires wisdom to understand wisdom; the music is nothing if the audience is deaf. - Walter Lippmann quote.
It requires wisdom to understand wisdom; the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.
— Walter Lippmann

wisdom

Love endures only when the lovers love many things together and not merely each other. - Walter Lippmann quote.
Love endures only when the lovers love many things together and not merely each other.
— Walter Lippmann

love relationships

You cannot endow even the best machine with initiative; the jolliest steam-roller will not plant flowers. - Walter Lippmann quote.
You cannot endow even the best machine with initiative; the jolliest steam-roller will not plant flowers.
— Walter Lippmann

machines technology

Propaganda is that branch of lying which nearly deceives your friends without ever deceiving your enemies. - Walter Lippmann quote.
Propaganda is that branch of lying which nearly deceives your friends without ever deceiving your enemies.
— Walter Lippmann Esquire

propaganda

The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on. - Walter Lippmann quote.
The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.
— Walter Lippmann

business leadership

The thinker dies, but his thoughts are beyond the reach of destruction. Men are mortal; but ideas are immortal. - Walter Lippmann quote.
The thinker dies, but his thoughts are beyond the reach of destruction. Men are mortal; but ideas are immortal.
— Walter Lippmann

ideas

Most men, after a little freedom, have preferred authority with the consoling assurances and the economy of effort which it brings. - Walter Lippmann quote.
Most men, after a little freedom, have preferred authority with the consoling assurances and the economy of effort which it brings.
— Walter Lippmann

authority freedom

The study of error is not only in the highest degree prophylactic, but it serves as a stimulating introduction to the study of truth. - Walter Lippmann quote.
The study of error is not only in the highest degree prophylactic, but it serves as a stimulating introduction to the study of truth.
— Walter Lippmann Public Opinion

truth mistakes error

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 quote.
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

politics

It is perfectly true that that government is best which governs least. It is equally true that that government is best which provides most. - Walter Lippmann quote.
It is perfectly true that that government is best which governs least. It is equally true that that government is best which provides most.
— Walter Lippmann

government

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 quote.
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

leadership business

Once you touch the biographies of human beings, the notion that political beliefs are logically determined collapses like a pricked balloon. - Walter Lippmann quote.
Once you touch the biographies of human beings, the notion that political beliefs are logically determined collapses like a pricked balloon.
— Walter Lippmann A Preface to Politics

beliefs biography

With exceptions so rare that they are regarded as miracles and freaks of nature, successful democratic politicians are insecure and intimidated men. - Walter Lippmann quote.
With exceptions so rare that they are regarded as miracles and freaks of nature, successful democratic politicians are insecure and intimidated men.
— Walter Lippmann Essays in the Public Philosophy

insecurity

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. - Walter Lippmann quote.
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.
— Walter Lippmann A Preface to Politics

success conservatives

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 quote.
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

enemies

Cronyism is 'the curse of journalism. After many years I have reached the Arm conclusion that it is impossible for any objective newspaperman to be a friend of a President. - Walter Lippmann quote.
Cronyism is 'the curse of journalism. After many years I have reached the Arm conclusion that it is impossible for any objective newspaperman to be a friend of a President.
— Walter Lippmann

journalism

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. - Walter Lippmann quote.
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.
— Walter Lippmann A Preface to Morals

science & religion science religion

There is nothing so good for the human soul as the discovery that there are ancient and flourishing civilized societies which have somehow managed to exist for many centuries and are still in being though they have had no help from the traveler in solving their problems. - Walter Lippmann quote.
There is nothing so good for the human soul as the discovery that there are ancient and flourishing civilized societies which have somehow managed to exist for many centuries and are still in being though they have had no help from the traveler in solving their problems.
— Walter Lippmann

civilization Travel

I have never cared for an upholstered life, and, please God, I never shall. The protected existence, as I see it, is to refuse the risks, to be prudent and aquiescent, to sit tight, perhaps to climb cautiously, but never to plunge. I'd rather be squashed at the bottom of the heap than be planted at the top. - Walter Lippmann quote.
I have never cared for an upholstered life, and, please God, I never shall. The protected existence, as I see it, is to refuse the risks, to be prudent and aquiescent, to sit tight, perhaps to climb cautiously, but never to plunge. I'd rather be squashed at the bottom of the heap than be planted at the top.
— Walter Lippmann

adversity comfort

The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.
— Walter Lippmann

leadership

The opposition is indispensable.  A good statesman, like any other sensible human being, always learns more from his opponents than from his fervent supporters.
— Walter Lippmann Atlantic Monthly

opposition

With exceptions so rare that they are regarded as miracles and freaks of nature, 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 demanding and threatening elements in their constituencies.
— Walter Lippmann Essays in the Public Philosophy

politicians