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The Essential Lippmann: A Political Philosophy for Liberal Democracy

Book by Walter Lippmann · 5 quotes · Men, May, People

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The Essential Lippmann: A Political Philosophy for Liberal Democracy Quotes

“In government offices which are sensitive to the vehemence and passion of mass sentiment public men have no sure tenure. They are in effect perpetual office seekers, always on trial for their political lives, always required to court their restless constituents.”

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Book:The Essential Lippmann: A Political Philosophy for Liberal Democracy
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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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“Where mass opinion dominates the government, there is a morbid derangement of the true functions of power. The derangement brings about the enfeeblement, verging on paralysis, of the capacity to govern. This breakdown in the constitutional order is the cause of the precipitate and catastrophic decline of Western society. It may, if it cannot be arrested and reversed, bring about the fall of the West.”

IfsMayGovernmentOrderFallCausesOpinionMassCapacityFunctionWestWesternDeclinePublic OpinionArrestedBreakdownMorbidParalysisWestern Society
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“The man who will follow precedent, but never create one, is merely an obvious example of the routineer. You find him desperately numerous in the civil service, in the official bureaus. To him government is something given as unconditionally, as absolutely as ocean or hill. He goes on winding the tape that he finds. His imagination has rarely extricated itself from under the administrative machine to gain any sense of what a human, temporary contraption the whole affair is. What he thinks is the heavens above him is nothing but the roof.”

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Book:The Essential Lippmann: A Political Philosophy for Liberal Democracy
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