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It is perfectly true that that government is best which governs least. It is equally true that that government is best which provides most.

Walter Lippmann

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Walter Lippmann
Age: 85 †
Born: 1889
Born: September 23
Died: 1974
Died: December 14
Journalist
Politician
Writer
New York City
New York
Best
Governs
Provides
Equally
Perfectly
Least
True
Government

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A rational man acting in the real world may be defined as one who decides where he will strike a balance between what he desires and what can be done.
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In the blood of the martyrs to intolerance are the seeds of unbelief
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You don't have to preach honesty to men with creative purpose. Let a human being throw the engines of his soul into the making of something, and the instinct of workmanship will take care of his honesty.
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We are all captives of the picture in our head - our belief that the world we have experienced is the world that really exists.
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There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil.
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Usually it is the stereotyped shape assumed by an event at an obvious place that uncovers the run of the news.
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Men who are orthodox when they are young are in danger of being middle-aged all their lives.
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The public must be put in its place, so that it may exercise its own powers, but no less and perhaps even more, so that each of us may live free of the trampling and the roar of a bewildered herd.
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Franklin D. Roosevelt is no crusader. He is no tribune of the people. He is no enemy of entrenched privilege. He is a pleasant man who, without any important qualifications for the office, would very much like to be President.
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The smashing of idols is in itself such a preoccupation that it is almost impossible for the iconoclast to look clearly into a future when there will not be many idols left to smash.
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We are concerned in public affairs, but immersed in our private ones.
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Before you can begin to think about politics at all, you have to abandon the notion that there is a war between good men and bad men.
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A man cannot sleep in his cradle: whatever is useful must in the nature of life become useless.
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To create a minimum standard of life below which no human being can fall is the most elementary duty of the democratic state.
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The wiser a man is, it seems to me, the more vividly he can see the future as part of the evolving present. He doesn't break the flow of life, he directs it, hastens it, but preserves its continuity.
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A man cannot be a good doctor and keep telephoning his broker between patients nor a good lawyer with his eye on the ticker.
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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.
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The central drama of our age is how the Western nations and the Asian peoples are to find a tolerable basis of co-existence.
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Art enlarges experience by admitting us to the inner life of others.
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