"Only the consciousness of a purpose that is mightier than any man and worthy of all men can fortify and inspirit and compose the souls of men"
About this Quote
Lippmann isn’t selling feel-good purpose; he’s prescribing a civic sedative strong enough to steady a shaken republic. The sentence is built like a piece of public architecture: “fortify and inspirit and compose” moves from hardening, to energizing, to calming. It’s not just motivation he wants, but a disciplined interior order. In a mass democracy vulnerable to panic, propaganda, and personality cults, the real danger isn’t that people lack opinions - it’s that their opinions become ungovernable.
The key phrase is “mightier than any man.” Lippmann is drawing a bright line against the romantic faith in heroic leaders. Purpose must be larger than the ego driving it, or it becomes merely a sophisticated form of domination. He also insists it must be “worthy of all men,” a subtle rebuke to ideologies that demand sacrifice for a tribe, a class, or a nation while quietly excluding the rest from the moral circle. That “all” is doing political work: it aims to universalize obligation and restrain the usual temptations of scapegoating and chauvinism.
Context matters. Lippmann wrote through World War I, the rise of mass media, the Great Depression, fascism, and the early Cold War - decades that proved how easily publics can be mobilized by spectacle and fear. The subtext is anxious and practical: if democratic citizens are to withstand manipulation, they need more than facts. They need a shared moral horizon that can absorb shocks, outlast demagogues, and keep individual lives from dissolving into cynicism or frenzy.
The key phrase is “mightier than any man.” Lippmann is drawing a bright line against the romantic faith in heroic leaders. Purpose must be larger than the ego driving it, or it becomes merely a sophisticated form of domination. He also insists it must be “worthy of all men,” a subtle rebuke to ideologies that demand sacrifice for a tribe, a class, or a nation while quietly excluding the rest from the moral circle. That “all” is doing political work: it aims to universalize obligation and restrain the usual temptations of scapegoating and chauvinism.
Context matters. Lippmann wrote through World War I, the rise of mass media, the Great Depression, fascism, and the early Cold War - decades that proved how easily publics can be mobilized by spectacle and fear. The subtext is anxious and practical: if democratic citizens are to withstand manipulation, they need more than facts. They need a shared moral horizon that can absorb shocks, outlast demagogues, and keep individual lives from dissolving into cynicism or frenzy.
Quote Details
| Topic | Vision & Strategy |
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