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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.

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
Thought
Presumed
May
Rationally
Would
Acted
Men
Clearly
Saws
Choose
Public
Interest
Disinterestedly

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The true speech of man is idiomatic, if not of the earth and sky, then at least of the saloon and the bleachers.
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It is not the idea as such which the censor attacks, whether it be heresy or radicalism or obscenity. He attacks the circulation of the idea among the classes which in his judgment are not to be trusted with the idea.
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When everyone thinks the same, nobody is thinking.
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The facts we see depend on where we are placed and the habits of our eyes.
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A man who has humility will have acquired in the last reaches of his beliefs the saving doubt of his own certainty.
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There is nothing so bad but it can masquerade as moral.
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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 justification of majority rule in politics is not to be found in its ethical superiority.
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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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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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Where two factions see vividly each its own aspect, and contrive their own explanations of what they see, it is almost impossible for them to credit each other with honesty.
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Love endures when the lovers love many things together And not merely each other.
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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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The common interests very largely elude public opinion entirely, and can be managed only by a specialised class.
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Ages when custom is unsettled are necessarily ages of prophecy. The moralist cannot teach what is revealed he must reveal what can be taught. He has to seek insight rather than to preach.
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When men are brought face to face with their opponents, forced to listen and learn and mend their ideas, they cease to be children and savages and begin to live like civilized men. Then only is freedom a reality, when men may voice their opinions because they must examine their opinions.
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You cannot endow even the best machine with initiative the jolliest steamroller will not plant flowers.
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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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