WALTER LIPPMANN QUOTES V

American writer, reporter & political commentator (1889-1974)

The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.

WALTER LIPPMANN

The Essential Lippmann

Tags: leadership


There are at least two distinct selves, the public and regal self, the private and human.

WALTER LIPPMANN

Public Opinion


Run against the grain of a nation's genius and see where you get with your laws.

WALTER LIPPMANN

A Preface to Politics


Our life is managed from behind the scenes: we are actors in dramas that we cannot interpret. Of almost no decisive event can we say: this was our own choosing. We happen upon careers, necessity pushing, blind inclination pulling. If we stop to think we are amazed that we should be what we are.

WALTER LIPPMANN

Drift and Mastery: An Attempt to Diagnose the Current Unrest


In places where men are used to differences they inevitably become tolerant.

WALTER LIPPMANN

The Stakes of Diplomacy

Tags: tolerance


To keep a faith pure, man had better retire to a monastery.

WALTER LIPPMANN

The Stakes of Diplomacy

Tags: faith


When a man and woman are successfully in love, their whole activity is energized and victorious. They walk better, their digestion improves, they think more clearly, their secret worries drop away, the world is fresh and interesting, and they can do more than they dreamed that they could do. In love of this kind sexual intimacy is not the dead end of desire as it is in romantic or promiscuous love, but periodic affirmation of the inward delight of desire pervading an active life.

WALTER LIPPMANN

A Preface to Morals

Tags: love


It is better to catch the idol-maker than to smash each idol.

WALTER LIPPMANN

A Preface to Politics