Football strategy does not originate in a scrimmage: it is useless to expect solutions in a political campaign.
Walter LippmannRead
True opinions can prevail only if the facts to which they refer are known; if they are not known, false ideas are just as effective as true ones, if not a little more effective.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True opinions require an understanding of facts to be effective; without facts, false ideas can be misleadingly persuasive.
In this quote, Walter Lippmann emphasizes the importance of grounding one's beliefs in factual knowledge. He suggests that opinions can only hold true power when they are supported by facts, indicating that the lack of factual understanding can allow false ideas to gain traction and be as convincing, if not more so, than true opinions. This highlights the crucial need for critical thinking and informed discourse in society.
Themes
TruthOpinionsFactsDeceptionKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate discussing media misinformation, this quote can illustrate the importance of verifying facts before forming opinions.
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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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.
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