In government offices which are sensitive to the vehemence and passion of mass sentiment public men have no sure tenure. They are in effect perpetual office seekers, always on trial for their political lives, always required to court their restless constituents.

Successful democratic politicians are insecure and intimidated men. They advance politically only as they placate, appease, bribe, seduce, bamboozle, or otherwise manage to manipulate the demanding and threatening elements in their constituencies. The decisive consideration is not whether the proposition is good but whether it is popular -- not whether it will work well and prove itself but whether the active talking constituents like it immediately. Politicians rationalize this servitude by saying that in a democracy public men are the servants of the people.

Most men, after a little freedom, have preferred authority with the consoling assurances and the economy of effort it brings.

Men who are orthodox when they are young are in danger of being middle-aged all their lives.

The devil is merely a fallen angel, and when God lost Satan he lost one of his best lieutenants.

Leaders are the custodians of a nation's ideals, of the beliefs it cherishes, of its permanent hopes, of the faith which makes a nation out of a mere aggregation of individuals.

A free press is not a privilege but an organic necessity in a great society. ... A great society is simply a big and complicated urban society.