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.

What the public does is not to express its opinions but to align itself for or against a proposal. If that theory is accepted, we must abandon the notion that democratic government can be the direct expression of the will of the people. We must abandon the notion that the people govern. Instead, we must adopt the theory that, by their occasional mobilizations as a majority, people support or oppose the individuals who actually govern. We must say that the popular will does not direct continuously but that it intervenes occasionally.

There 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.

Popular government has not yet been proved to guarantee, always and everywhere, good government.

People who are tremendously concerned about their identification, their individuality, their self-expression, or their sense of humor, always seem to be missing the very things they pursue.

The great social adventure of America is no longer the conquest of the wilderness but the absorption of fifty different peoples.

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