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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.

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
Actually
Abandon
Freedom
Individuals
Individual
Notion
Must
Majority
People
Theory
Oppose
Instead
Adopt
Democracy
Govern
Support
Occasional

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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 private citizen, beset by partisan appeals for the loan of his Public Opinion, will soon see, perhaps, that these appeals are not a compliment to his intelligence, but an imposition on his good nature and an insult to his sense of evidence.
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Brains, you know, are suspect in the Republican Party.
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We know that it is possible to harness desire to many interests, that evil is one form of a desire, and not the nature of it.
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We are quite rich enough to defend ourselves, whatever the cost. We must now learn that we are quite rich enough to educate ourselves as we need to be educated.
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The first principle of a civilized state is that power is legitimate only when it is under contract.
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When everyone thinks alike, no one thinks very much.
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It is easier to develop great power than it is to know how to use it wisely.
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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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