Quotes by Lewis H. Lapham

He was as uncommunicative as a vending machine.
– Lewis H. Lapham
Leadership consists not in degrees of technique but in traits of character; it requires moral rather than athletic or intellectual effort, and it imposes on both leader and follower alike the burdens of self-restraint.
– Lewis H. Lapham
More than illness or death, the American journalist fears standing alone against the whim of his owners or the prejudices of his audience. Deprive William Safire of the insignia of the New York Times, and he would have a hard time selling his truths to a weekly broadsheet in suburban Duluth.
– Lewis H. Lapham
Of what does politics consist except the making of imperfect decisions, many of them unjust and quite a few of them deadly?
– Lewis H. Lapham
People may expect too much of journalism. Not only do they expect it to be entertaining, they expect it to be true.
– Lewis H. Lapham
The figure of the enthusiast who has just discovered jogging or a new way to fix tofu can be said to stand or, more accurately, to tremble on the threshold of conversion, as the representative American.
– Lewis H. Lapham
The national distrust of the contemplative temperament arises less from an innate Philistinism than from a suspicion of anything that cannot be counted, stuffed, framed or mounted over the fireplace in the den.
– Lewis H. Lapham
The supply of government exceeds demand.
– Lewis H. Lapham
Unlike any other business in the United States, sports must preserve an illusion of perfect innocence.
– Lewis H. Lapham