There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies.

The ordinary politician has a very low estimate of human nature. In his daily life he comes into contact chiefly with persons who want to get something or to avoid something. Beyond this circle of seekers after privileges, individuals and organized minorities, he is aware of a large unorganized, indifferent mass of citizens who ask nothing in particular and rarely complain. The politician comes after a while to think that the art of politics is to satisfy the seekers after favors and to mollify the inchoate mass with noble sentiments and patriotic phrases.

The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully.

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.

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

The facts we see depend on where we are placed and the habits of our eyes.

The writers who have nothing to say, are the ones you can buy, the others have too high a price.