The principle of majority rule is the mildest form in which the force of numbers can be exercised. It is a pacific substitute for civil war in which the opposing armies are counted and the victory is awarded to the larger before any blood is shed. Except in the sacred tests of democracy and in the incantations of the orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force.
Walter LippmannBut what is propaganda, if not the effort to alter the picture to which men respond, to substitute one social pattern for another?
Walter LippmannMen who are orthodox when they are young are in danger of being middle-aged all their lives.
Walter LippmannPhotographs 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 LippmannThe genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully.
Walter LippmannCulture is the name for what people are interested in, their thoughts, their models, the books they read and the speeches they hear, their table-talk, gossip, controversies, historical sense and scientific training, the values they appreciate, the quality of life they admire. All communities have a culture. It is the climate of their civilization.
Walter Lippmann