I generalized rashly: That is what kills political writing, this absurd pretence that you are delivering a great utterance. You never do. You are just a puzzled man making notes about what you think. You are not building the Pantheon, then why act like a graven image? You are drawing sketches in the sand which the sea will wash away.

Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) American journalist and author

“Books and Things,” The New Republic, (7 Aug 1915)

After reading a book on politics he didn't like.