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.