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" When philosophers try to be politicians they generally cease to be philosophers. "

Walter Lippmann

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" Unless the reformer can invent something which substitutes attractive virtues for attractive vices, he will fail. "

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" The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully. "

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" The first principle of a civilized state is that the power is legitimate only when it is under contract. "

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" 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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" No amount of charters, direct primaries, or short ballots will make a democracy out of an illiterate people. "

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" The best servants of the people, like the best valets, must whisper unpleasant truths in the master's ear. It is the court fool, not the foolish courtier, whom the king can least afford to lose. "

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" When all men think alike, no one thinks very much. "

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" When men can no longer be theists, they must, if they are civilized, become humanists. "

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" What we call a democratic society might be defined for certain purposes as one in which the majority is always prepared to put down a revolutionary minority. "

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" The tendency of the casual mind is to pick out or stumble upon a sample which supports or defies its prejudices, and then to make it the representative of a whole class. "

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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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