| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 36453 |
| QUOTATION: | When we think offhand of a politician, we think of a man who works for a partial interest. At the worst it is his own pocket. At the best it may be his party, his class, or an institution with which he is identified. We never feel that he can or will take into account all the interests concerned, and because bias and partisanship are the qualities of his conduct, we feel, unless we are naively afflicted with the same bias, that he is not to be trusted too far. Now the word “statesman,” when it is not mere pomposity, connotes a man whose mind is elevated sufficiently above the conflict of contending parties to enable him to adopt a course of action which takes into account a greater number of interests in the perspective of a longer period of time. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Walter Lippman (1889–1974), U.S. journalist, social critic. A Preface to Morals, ch. 13, Macmillan (1929). |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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