317 Quotes by Walter Lippmann

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

Almost always tradition is nothing but a record and a machine-made imitation of the habits that our ancestors created. The average conservative is a slave to the most incidental and trivial part of his forefathers glory - to the archaic formula which happened to express their genius or the eighteenth-century contrivance by which for a time it was served.

Lovers who have nothing to do but love each other are not really to be envied; love and nothing else very soon is nothing else.

In the blood of the martyrs to intolerance are the seeds of unbelief

The time has come to stop beating our heads against stone walls under the illusion that we have been appointed policeman to the human race.

Politicians tend to live "in character" and many a public figure has come to imitate the journalism that describes him.

To understand is not only to pardon, but in the end to love.

The opposition is indispensable. A good statesman, like any other sensible human being, always learns more from his opposition than from his fervent supporters.

The common interests very largely elude public opinion entirely, and can be managed only by a specialised class.