Walter Lippmann was an influential American writer, journalist, and political commentator.
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(78 quotes found)
“You cannot endow even the best machine with initiative; the jolliest steamroller will not plant flowers.”
Walter Lippmann
“You don't have to preach honesty to men with creative purpose. Let a human being throw the energies of his soul into the making of something, and the instinct of workmanship will take care of his honesty.”
“When philosophers try to be politicians they generally cease to be philosophers.”
“Unless democracy is to commit suicide by consenting to its own destruction, it will have to find some formidable answer to those who come to it saying: "I demand from you in the name of your principles the rights which I shall deny to you later. . ."”
“The thinker dies, but his thoughts are beyond the reach of destruction. Men are mortal; but ideas are immortal.”
“A useful definition of liberty is obtained only by seeking the principle of liberty in the main business of human life, that is to say, in the process by which men educate their responses and learn to control their environment.”
“Once you touch the biographies of human beings, the notion that political beliefs are logically determined collapses like a pricked balloon.”
“Certainly he is not of the generation that regards honesty as the best policy. However, he does regard it as a policy.”