Football strategy does not originate in a scrimmage: it is useless to expect solutions in a political campaign.
Walter LippmannRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
In times of uncertainty, true insights come from discovery rather than traditional teachings.
Walter Lippmann emphasizes that during periods of social or cultural upheaval, it is essential to embrace personal insights and revelations instead of relying solely on established moral teachings. Rather than preaching doctrine, moralists should guide others to uncover wisdom from their own experiences and observations, highlighting the importance of adaptability and introspection in understanding moral truths.
Themes
InsightRevelationMoralityChangeUncertainty
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on social change, one might say, 'As Walter Lippmann noted, ages when custom is unsettled are necessarily ages of prophecy.'
More from Walter Lippmann
All quotes →The simple opposition between the people and big business has disappeared because the people themselves have become so deeply involved in big business.
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The news and the truth are not the same thing.
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There is nothing so bad but it can masquerade as moral.
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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.
Walter LippmannRead
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