Men who are “orthodox” when they are young are in danger of being middle-aged all their lives.
Walter Lippmann Quotes
True opinions can prevail only if the facts to which they refer are known; if they are not known, false ideas are just as effective as true ones, if not a little more effective.
What matters is not the utterance of opinions. What matters is the confrontation of opinions in debate… We have the substance of liberty… when the wise man can increase his wisdom by hearing the judgment of his peers.
For the newspaper is in all literalness the bible of democracy, the book out of which a people determines its conduct. It is the only serious book people read. It is the only book they read every day.
The theory of a free press is that truth will emerge from free discussion, not that it will be presented perfectly and instantly in any one account.
A press monopoly is incompatible with a free press; and one can proceed with this principle: if there is a monopoly of the means of communications – of radio, television, magazines, books, public meetings – it follows that this society is by definition and in fact deprived of freedom.
One has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable, or dangerous to do so.
It is impossible to abolish either with a law or an ax the desires of men.
The central drama of our age is how the Western nations and the Asian peoples are to find a tolerable basis of co-existence.
Between ourselves and our real natures we interpose that wax figure of idealizations and selections which we call our character.
