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The first principle of a civilized state is that power is legitimate only when it is under contract.

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
Firsts
Contracts
First
Civilized
Principle
Constitution
Principles
State
Power
Legitimate
States
Contract

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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.
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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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For the most part we do not first see, and then define, we define first and then see. In the great blooming, buzzing confusion of the outer world we pick out what our culture has already defined for us, and we tend to perceive that which we have picked out in the form stereotyped for us by our culture.
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Very few established institutions, governments and constitutions ...are ever destroyed by their enemies until they have been corrupted and weakened by their friends.
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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.
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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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We must abandon the notion that the people govern. Instead, we must adopt the theory that, by their occasional mobilisations as a majority, people support or oppose the individuals who actually govern.
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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.
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A large plural society cannot be governed without recognizing that, transcending its plural interests, there is a rational order with a superior common law.
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The simple opposition between the people and big business has disappeared because the people themselves have become so deeply involved in big business.
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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.
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It is so much easier to talk of poverty than to think of the poor.
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Life can be swamped by sex very easily if sex is not normally satisfied.
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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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There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies.
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The time has come to stop beating our heads against stone walls under the illusion that we have been appointed policeman to the human race.
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The public interest may be presumed to be what men would choose if they saw clearly, thought rationally, acted disinterestedly and benevolently.
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We are told about the world before we see it. We imagine most things before we experience them. And those preconceptions, unless education has made us acutely aware, govern deeply the whole process of perception.
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Whether or not birth control is eugenic, hygienic, and economic, it is the most revolutionary practice in the history of sexual morals.
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The man who raises new issues has always been distasteful to politicians. He musses up what had been so tidily arranged.
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