Walter Lippmann Quotes

The rule, acknowledged or not, seems to be that if we have great power we must use it. We would use a steam shovel to pick up a dime. We have experts who can prove there is no other way to do it.

The culminating point of administration is to know well how much power, great or small, we ought to use in all circumstances.

The issue is not whether or not you have that power, the issue is whether or not you use it.

One cannot hold power and not use it.

We have learned that power is a positive force if it is used for positive purposes.

I want to lead a government humble enough to know its place.

It never pays … for one great power to take advantage of the momentary weakness or distraction of another great power in order to force upon it concessions it would never have accepted in normal circumstances.

When you establish a powerful position, the first think you have to do is check that power and make it accountable.

If you use power too loosely, you lose power.

The attempt to combine wisdom with power has only rarely been successful and then only for a short while.

A mature and great power will make measured and limited use of its power.

Conquering the world on horseback is easy; it is dismounting and governing that is hard.

The leader can never close the gap between himself and the group. If he does, he is no longer what he must be. He must walk a tightrope between the consent he must win and the control he must exert.

I want to use but not misuse my position as President of the General Assembly.

We don't want to use our strength, but you have to have our strength.

One uses power by grasping it lightly. To grasp too strongly is to be taken over by power, and thus to become its victim.

There's no way to use power for good.

Every morning, I shall concern myself anew about the boundary, Between the love-deed-Yes and the power-deed-No, And pressing forward honor reality. We cannot avoid, Using power, Cannot escape the compulsion, To afflict the world, So let us, cautious in diction, And mighty in contradiction, Love powerfully.

I belive power can be used for good, I don't think every form of power is absolute evil. I wish I would have stepped in, and I really regret it. And that's why I really encourage young people who are organizing to speak up.

Broken people misuse their power while people who have values don't use their powers in a way that harms.

The wielders of power did not speak for it, nor did they naturally serve it. Their interest was to use and develop power, no less natural and necessary than liberty but more dangerous.

Don't trust children with edge tools. Don't trust man, great God, with more power than he has until he has learned to use that little better. What a hell we should make of the world if we could do what we would!

Why don't you ever use your strength on me?" she said. Because love means renouncing strength," said Franz softly.

Though the object of being a Great Power is to be able to fight a Great War, the only way of remaining a Great Power is not to fight one.

Small unit democracy, I found early on, didn't work for me.