Walter Lippmann Quotes

When everyone thinks alike, no one is thinking clearly.

When a man can take a poll and tell what everybody is thinking, that means nobody is really thinking anymore.

The opinion of the majority is not lightly to be rejected; but neither is it to be carelessly echoed.

When everybody thinks alike, nobody thinks.

If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking.

Since the mass of mankind are too ignorant or too indolent to think seriously, if majorities are right it is by accident.

The enemy of individuality is groupthink.

I can think of nothing worse than a think-tank where everybody agreed.

There are certain times when public opinion is the worst of all opinions.

While people are quick to praise the wisdom of the crowd, being an old-school journalist, I look at the wisdom of the crowd and know it can quickly turn into a mob mentality.

The herd instinct among forecasters makes sheep look like independent thinkers.

I think in reality, today, if you use the same tools as everyone else, you kind of build the same products.

The multitude is always in the wrong.

In every respect the burden is hard on those who attack an almost universal opinion. They must be very fortunate well as unusually capable if they obtain a hearing at all.

Group action -- yes; group thinking -- no.

If you only talk to people who agree with you, it’s easy to believe that you’re in the majority.

If all the media are singing one song, it gets dangerous; it really does.

Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking.

The last thing we want is a monolithic viewpoint where six people are standing before a president saying the same thing over and over again.

When your opinions start to coincide with those of the majority, it is time to reconsider your opinions.

Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do.

To put away one's own original thoughts in order to take up a book is a sin against the Holy Ghost.

I've been amazed at how fast and herd-like opinions in the United States are.

Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to drink other men's thoughts, to speak other men's words, to follow other men's habits.

I'm against fashionable thinking.