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Quotes by Journalist
"The graceful Georgian streets and squares, a series of steel engravings under a wet sky."
78
"And I'm in favor of that because I have a gay son, who's a very successful theater designer."
74
"Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other."
70
"There are two sayings that are familiar in every news room across the country: 1) sex sells; 2) if it bleeds it leads."
70
"I've learned it's always better to have a small percentage of a big success, than a hundred percent of nothing."
70
"A close associate of his gave an interview in which the book was described as quotes 'fiction from being to end'. I suffered trial by tabloid for a couple of weeks, lots of insults in the press, in the columns - this man should be put in the tower and so on."
69
"If all difficulties were known at the outset of a long journey, most of us would never start out at all."
69
"Back in the thirties we were told we must collectivize the nation because the people were so poor. Now we are told we must collectivize the nation because the people are so rich."
69
"I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University."
68
"The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason."
67
"Television? The word is half Greek, half Latin. No good can come of it."
67
"Nixon had some large achievements in foreign affairs. They will be remembered. But a president probably gets remembered for one thing, and Watergate will head the Nixon list, I suspect."
65
"So, it, of course, makes one wonder how many other people there might be who are completely innocent, who have been sent by the U.S. to countries where they've been interrogated, and in some instances it seems tortured."
65
"When men can no longer be theists, they must, if they are civilized, become humanists."
64
"The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers."
63
"I just wish the world was twice as big and half of it was still unexplored."
62
"I have nothing against undertakers personally. It's just that I wouldn't want one to bury my sister."
62
"It's a journalist's job to be a witness to history. We're not there to worry about ourselves. We're there to try and get as near as we can, in an imperfect world, to the truth and get the truth out."
62
"An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run."
61
"Tears are sometimes an inappropriate response to death. When a life has been lived completely honestly, completely successfully, or just completely, the correct response to death's perfect punctuation mark is a smile."
61
"If a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, a liberal is a conservative who's been arrested."
58
"It took man thousands of years to put words down on paper, and his lawyers still wish he wouldn't."
57
"The tax collector must love poor people, he's creating so many of them."
56
"I have a hat. It is graceful and feminine and give me a certain dignity, as if I were attending a state funeral or something. Someday I may get up enough courage to wear it, instead of carrying it."
56
"Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done."
55
"A certain number of Americans are already in Peking and most of us here feel that it would be very useful for the United States and especially for the Left-wing progressive movement in the United States if groups of students such as you mention could make a tour of China."
55
"The helicopter is a fine way to travel, but it induces a view of the world that only God and CEOs share on a regular basis."
55
"Whatever their motivations, lawmakers on both side of the aisle have certainly discovered that immigration is one of those issues that resonate strongly with the public."
55
"Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance."
55
"The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer."
55
"This work is a torture on the rump but a joy to the heart."
54
"My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint."
54
"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."
53
"Liberals, it has been said, are generous with other peoples' money, except when it comes to questions of national survival when they prefer to be generous with other people's freedom and security."
53
"There's the great line: the definition of a liberal is someone who's afraid to take their own side in a fight. And that's my problem with my fellow liberals."
52
"Politics is show business for ugly people."
52
"In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity."
52
"Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before."
Will,
52
"Some folks can look so busy doing nothing that they seem indispensable."
52
"The thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly, or quiet. It requires a certain relish for confusion."
51
"I've gone from the most trusted man in America to one of the most debated."
51
"The rich pay more in total taxes now than ever before - ever. It's true. Just like it's true that when the rich are convinced they're going to be taxed more, they spend less. And when the top few percenters don't spend, there goes all your spending, because they account for half of all retail spending."
51
"The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat oneself."
51
"Politics is the art of controlling your environment."
51
"You know, we all have our inner demons. I, for one - I can't speak for you, but I'm on the verge of moral collapse at any time. It can happen by the end of the show."
51
"For me, the key is I always have to be the same person.If someone was to hear me say something on Fox and hear me say something different on NPR, they would say, 'The guy is a hypocrite.'"
51
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