Walter Lippmann

"In places where men are used to differences they inevitably become tolerant." Walter Lippmann

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

"And the principle which distinguishes democracy from all other forms of government is that in a democracy the opposition not only is tolerated as constitutional but must be maintained because it is in fact indispensable." Walter Lippmann

"Men have been barbarians much longer than they have been civilized. They are only precariously civilized, and within us there is the propensity, persistent as the force of gravity, to revert under stress and strain, under neglect or temptation, to our first natures." Walter Lippmann

"The American's conviction that he must be able to look any man in the eye and tell him to go to hell is the very essence of the free man's way of life." Walter Lippmann

"Behind innocence there gathers a clotted mass of superstition, of twisted and misdirected impulse; clandestine flirtation, fads, and ragtime fill the unventilated mind." Walter Lippmann

"The balancing of present wants against the future is really the central problem of ethics." Walter Lippmann

"The chief element in the art of statesmanship under modern conditions is the ability to elucidate the confused and clamorous interests which converge upon the seat of government. It is an ability to penetrate from the na?ve self-interest of each group to its permanent and real interest. Statesmanship consists in giving the people not what they want but what they will learn to want." Walter Lippmann

"The whole speculation about morality is an effort to find a way of living which men who live it will instinctively feel is good." Walter Lippmann

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

"The great social adventure of America is no longer the conquest of the wilderness but the absorption of fifty different peoples." Walter Lippmann

"Men who are orthodox when they are young are in danger of being middle-aged all their lives." Walter Lippmann

"The opposition is indispensable. A good statesman, like any other sensible human being, always learns more from his opponents than from his fervent supporters. For his supporters will push him to disaster unless his opponents show him where the dangers are. So if he is wise he will often pray to be delivered from his friends, because they will ruin him. But though it hurts, he ought also to pray never to be left without opponents; for they keep him on the path of reason and good sense." Walter Lippmann