Quotes by Walter Lippmann

“Where all men think alike, no one thinks very much.”

“Our conscience is not the vessel of eternal verities. It grows with our social life, and a new social condition means a radical change in conscience.”

“In a free society the state does not administer the affairs of men. It administers justice among men who conduct their own affairs.”

“What we call a democratic society might be defined for certain purposes as one in which the majority is always prepared to put down a revolutionary minority.”

“he spoke of what he called the "inner history of weakness, of what disappoints us in leaders, the timidity of thought, the hesitancy and the drift." In these cases imagination and will are often bl...”

“There are portions of the sovereign people who spend most of their spare time and spare money on motoring and comparing motor cars, on bridge-whist and post-mortems, on moving pictures and potboile...”

“...we can best understand the furies of war and politics by remembering that almost the whole of each party believes absolutely in its picture of the opposition, that it takes as fact, not what is,...”

“While the right to talk may be the beginning of freedom the necessity of listening is what makes the right important.”

“In a democracy the opposition is not only tolerated as constitutional but must be maintained because it is indispensable.”

“A man has honour if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient unprofitable or dangerous to do so.”

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

“The first principle of a civilized state is that the power is legitimate only when it is under contract.”

“Many a time I have wanted to stop talking and find out what I really believed.”

“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.”

“While the right to talk may be the beginning of freedom the necessity of listening is what makes the right important.”

“In a democracy the opposition is not only tolerated as constitutional but must be maintained because it is indispensable.”

“The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.”