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Ideals are an imaginative understanding of that which is desirable in that which is possible.

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
Understanding
Imaginative
Desirable
Ideals
Possible

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Modern men are afraid of the past. It is a record of human achievement, but its other face is human defeat.
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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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At the core of every moral code there is a picture of human nature, a map of the universe, and a version of history. To human nature (of the sort conceived), in a universe (of the kind imagined), after a history (so understood), the rules of the code apply.
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The devil is merely a fallen angel, and when God lost Satan he lost one of his best lieutenants.
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We are concerned in public affairs, but immersed in our private ones.
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It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.
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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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Men command fewer words than they have ideas to express, and language, as Jean Paul said, is a dictionary of faded metaphors.
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Men are mortal, but ideas are immortal.
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The balancing of present wants against the future is really the central problem of ethics.
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No mariner ever enters upon a more uncharted sea than does the average human being born in the 20th century. Our ancestors know their way from birth through eternity we are puzzled about the day after tomorrow.
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When men can no longer be theists, they must, if they are civilized, become humanists.
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Popular government has not yet been proved to guarantee, always and everywhere, good government.
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Whatever truth you contribute to the world will be one lucky shot in a thousand misses. You cannot be right by holding your breath and taking precautions.
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It was in the recognition that there is in each man a final essence, that is to say an immortal soul which only God can judge, that a limit was set upon the dominion of men over men.
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Men fall into a routine when they are tired and slack: it has all the appearance of activity with few of its burdens.
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Politicians tend to live in character and many a public figure has come to imitate the journalism that describes him.
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Life is an irreversible process and for that reason its future can never be a repetition of the past.
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He has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable, or dangerous to do so.
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