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Walter Lippmann Quotes (1889-1974)
Writer
About Walter Lippmann
Walter Lippmann (September 23, 1889 – December 14, 1974) was a United States writer, journalist, and political commentator. With a career spanning 60 years he was among the first to introduce the concept of Cold War, coining the term "stereotype" in the modern psychological meaning, as well as critiquing media and democracy in his newspaper column and several books, most notably his 1922 book Public Opinion.
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Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful Walter Lippmann quotes.
“[A]ll achievement should be measured in human happiness.”
“Art enlarges experience by admitting us to the inner life of others.”
“[T]he present crisis of Western democracy is a crisis in journalism.”
“In places where men are used to differences they inevitably become tolerant.”
“Unless our ideas are questioned, they become part of the furniture of eternity.”
“There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and shame the devil.”
“It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.”
“Ideals are imaginative understanding of that which is desirable in that which is possible.”
“There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the information by which to detect lies.”
“The self-evident truth which makes men invincible is that inalienably they are inviolate persons.”
“You cannot endow even the best machine with initiative; the jolliest steam-roller will not plant flowers.”
“[T]he newspaper is in all its literalness the bible of democracy, the book out of which a people determines its conduct.”
“The central drama of our age is how the Western nations and the Asian peoples are to find a tolerable basis of co-existence.”
“Between ourselves and our real natures we interpose that wax figure of idealizations and selections which we call our character.”
“In a free society the state does not administer the affairs of men. It administers justice among men who conduct their own affairs.”
“[T]here is only one purpose to which a whole society can be directed by a deliberate plan. That purpose is war, and there is no other.”
“Democracy is a meaningless word unless it signifies that differences of opinion have been expressed, represented, and even satisfied in the decision.”
“A large plural society cannot be governed without recognizing that, transcending its plural interests, there is a rational order with a superior common law.”
“[L]ove, in spite of the romantics, is not self-sustaining; it endures only when the lovers love many things together, and not merely each other.”
Walter Lippmann Quotes by Topic
Find exactly what you are looking for by browsing this categorized list of Walter Lippmann quotes by topic.
Walter Lippmann on Propaganda 3 quotes
“Photographs have the kind of authority over imagination to-day, which the printed word had yesterday, and the spoken word before that. They seem utterly real. They come, we imagine, directly to us without human meddling, and they are the most effortless food for the mind conceivable.”
Walter Lippmann on Newspapers 2 quotes
“For the newspaper is in all literalness the bible of democracy, the book out of which a people determines its conduct. It is the only serious book most people read. It is the only book they read every day.”
Walter Lippmann on Totalitarianism 2 quotes
“The totalitarian states, whether of the fascist or the communist persuasion, are more than superficially alike as dictatorships, in the suppression of dissent, and in operating planned and directed economies. They are profoundly alike.”
Walter Lippmann on Thought
Walter Lippmann on Machine
“You cannot endow even the best machine with initiative; the jolliest steam-roller will not plant flowers.”
Walter Lippmann on Cold War
Walter Lippmann on Free society
“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 on Big business
“The simple opposition between the people and big business has disappeared because the people themselves have become so deeply involved in big business.”
Walter Lippmann on Fanaticism
“Success makes men rigid and they tend to exalt stability over all the other virtues; tired of the effort of willing they become fanatics about conservatism.”
Walter Lippmann on Prejudice
“The tendency of the casual mind is to pick out or stumble upon a sample which supports or defies its prejudices, and then to make it the representative of a whole class.”
Walter Lippmann on President of the United States
“Franklin D. Roosevelt is no crusader. He is no tribune of the people. He is no enemy of entrenched privilege. He is a pleasant man who, without any important qualifications for the office, would very much like to be President.”
Walter Lippmann on Fascism
“The totalitarian states, whether of the fascist or the communist persuasion, are more than superficially alike as dictatorships, in the suppression of dissent, and in operating planned and directed economies. They are profoundly alike.”
About Walter Lippmann
Walter Lippmann (September 23, 1889 – December 14, 1974) was a United States writer, journalist, and political commentator. With a career spanning 60 years he was among the first to introduce the concept of Cold War, coining the term "stereotype" in the modern psychological meaning, as well as critiquing media and democracy in his newspaper column and several books, most notably his 1922 book Public Opinion.