Quotes by Walter Lippmann

A long life in journalism convinced me many presidents ago that there should be a large air space between a journalist and the head of a state. (Walter Lippmann)

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)

Because the results are expressed in numbers, it is easy to make the mistake of thinking that the intelligence test is a measure like a foot ruler or a pair of scales. It is, of course, a quite different sort of measure. Intelligence is not an abstraction like length and weight; it is an exceedingly complicated notion - which nobody has yet succeeded in defining. (Walter Lippmann)

Brains, you know, are suspect in the Republican Party. (Walter Lippmann)

In a free society the state does not administer the affairs of men. It administers justice among men who conduct their own affairs. (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. (Walter Lippmann)

It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf. (Walter Lippmann)

Men can know more than their ancestors did if they start with a knowledge of what their ancestors had already learned....That is why a society can be progressive only if it conserves its traditions. (Walter Lippmann)

Once you touch the biographies of human beings, the notion that political beliefs are logically determined collapses like a pricked balloon. (Walter Lippmann)

Only the consciousness of a purpose that is mightier than any man and worthy of all men can fortify and inspirit and compose the souls of men. (Walter Lippmann)