Most men, after a little freedom, have preferred authority with the consoling assurances and the economy of effort it brings.

Lippmann is pointing to a recurring political-psychological tradeoff: while freedom promises self-direction, it also demands sustained attention, judgment, and responsibility. Many people, he suggests, find that burden exhausting or anxiety-producing and therefore gravitate toward authority—leaders, institutions, or orthodoxies—that offer reassurance, clear rules, and ready-made conclusions. The “economy of effort” implies that deference can be cognitively and emotionally cheaper than independent deliberation. The remark fits Lippmann’s broader skepticism about mass publics’ capacity for continuous, informed self-government and his concern that modern complexity encourages reliance on experts, propaganda, or centralized power.