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.
Walter LippmannRead
The news and the truth are not the same thing.
Walter LippmannRead
There is nothing so bad but it can masquerade as moral.
Walter LippmannRead
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.
Walter LippmannRead
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
Similar quotes
As a person thinks, feels, and believes, so is the condition of his or her mind, body, and circumstances.
Joseph MurphyRead
There is no greater folly in the world than for a man to despair.
Miguel De CervantesRead
You can Light Up the Whole World by Giving without any Expectation Back.
Wayne DyerRead
Blessed is he whose fame does not outshine his truth.
Rabindranath TagoreRead
So I am not teaching you to be good, I am not teaching you to be bad; I am teaching you only to be whole. To be whole is to be healthy and to be healthy is to be holy.
RajneeshRead
He who can reach a child's heart can reach the worlds heart.
Rudyard KiplingRead