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A free press is not a privilege but an organic necessity in a great society. Without criticism and reliable and intelligent reporting, the government cannot govern. For there is no adequate way in which it can keep itself informed about what the people of the country are thinking and doing and wanting.

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
Cannot
Presses
Reporting
Government
Press
Reliable
Without
Privilege
Govern
Country
Criticism
Informed
Great
Intelligent
Organic
Way
Society
Adequate
Thinking
Free
Necessity
People
Keep
Wanting

More quotes by Walter Lippmann

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The essential discovery of maturity has little if anything to do with information about the names, the locations, and the sequence of facts it is the acquiring of a different sense of life, a different kind of intuition about the nature of things.
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Every man whose business it is to think knows that he must for part of the day create about himself a pool of silence.
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It seems like topsy-turvyland to make reason serve the irrational. Yet that is just what it has always done, and ought always to do.
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We are concerned in public affairs, but immersed in our private ones.
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Behind innocence there gathers a clotted mass of superstition, of twisted and misdirected impulse clandestine flirtation, fads, and ragtime fill the unventilated mind.
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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 is so much easier to talk of poverty than to think of the poor.
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Ignore what a man desires and you ignore the very source of his power.
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Freedom to speak... can be maintained only by promoting debate.
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The study of error is not only in the highest degree prophylactic, but it serves as a stimulating introduction to the study of truth.
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We say that the truth will make us free. Yes, but that truth is a thousand truths which grow and change.
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Liberty may be an uncomfortable blessing unless you know what to do with it. That is why so many freed slaves returned to their masters, why so many emancipated women are only too glad to give up the racket and settle down. For between announcing that you will live your own life, and the living of it lie the real difficulties of any awakening.
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The Bill of Rights does not come from the people and is not subject to change by majorities. It comes from the nature of things. It declares the inalienable rights of man not only against all government but also against the people collectively.
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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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Corrupt, stupid grasping functionaries will make at least as big a muddle of socialism as stupid, selfish and acquisitive employers can make of capitalism.
Walter Lippmann
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In a free society the state does not administer the affairs of men. It administers justice among men who conduct their own affairs.
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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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Modern men are afraid of the past. It is a record of human achievement, but its other face is human defeat.
Walter Lippmann
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Every fairly intelligent person is aware that the price of respectability is a muffled soul bent on the trivial and the mediocre.
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It is better to catch the idol-maker than to smash each idol.
Walter Lippmann