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.
Walter LippmannThe time has come to stop beating our heads against stone walls under the illusion that we have been appointed policeman to the human race.
Walter LippmannThere is but one bond of peace that is both permanent and enriching: The increasing knowledge of the world in which experiment occurs.
Walter LippmannThe effort to calculate exactly what the voters want at each particular moment leaves out of account the fact that when they are troubled the thing the voters most want is to be told what to want.
Walter LippmannWe must protect the right of our opponents to speak because we must hear what they have to say.
Walter Lippmann