The first principle of a civilized state is that the power is legitimate only when it is under contract. – Walter Lippmann
In government offices which are sensitive to the vehemence and passion of mass sentiment public men have no sure tenure. They are in effect perpetual office seekers, always on trial for their political lives, always required to court their restless constituents. – Walter Lippmann
The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on. – Walter Lippmann
It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf. – Walter Lippmann
The words of the Constitution are so unrestricted by their intrinsic meaning or by their history or by tradition or by prior decisions that they leave the individual Justice free, if indeed they do not compel him, to gather meaning not from reading the Constitution but from reading life. – Felix Frankfurter