20th-century Journalist Quotes

The only redemptive feature of war is the brotherhood which it forges.

There are Catalanists because there are Spanishers.

The worlds of folklore and religion were so mingled in early twentieth venture German culture that even families who didn't go to church were often deeply Christian.

The fragmentation of armed groups is among our major concerns

Maurizio Giuliano

I am an agnostic on most matters of faith, but on the subjects of maps I have always been a true believer. It is on the map, therefore it is, and I am.

Fortunately, the army has had much practice at ignoring impossible instructions.

One non-revolutionary weekend is infinitely more bloody than a month of permanent revolution.

A delectable sward, shaved as close as a bridegroom and looking just as green.

Basil Boothroyd

I reckon if I can't spend the day sleeping, the next best thing is to spend it reading and drinking.

The ideal is a totally free debate where everyone can write what they want so that all opinions can be let out, even uncomfortable or insulting opinions. The alternative, to hide opinions that exist in a democratic society, is too dangerous. For example, today we see that there is an obvious skepticism against immigration in Europe. These opinions exist whether we want it or not. But these thoughts might flourish even more if we do not discuss them. Today there are a number of questions that are "unmentionable". We should take them back. Not until then can we have a constructive debate.

Aside from sending someone to war or to prison, government s ability to make people involuntarily give over their money is its strongest exercise of authority over private citizens and their institutions.

William Greider

The way we understand both our present and our future depends on what we have lived through.

Democracy, like any noncoercive relationship, rests on a shared understanding of limits.

Every place is a goldmine. You have only to give yourself time, sit in a teahouse watching the passers-by, stand in a corner of the market, go for a haircut. You pick up a thread – a word, a meeting, a friend of a friend of someone you have just met – and soon the most insipid, most insignificant place becomes a mirror of the world, a window on life, a theatre of humanity.

Tiziano Terzani

Commercials on television are similar to sex and taxes; the more talk there is about them, the less likely they are to be curbed.

My boredom threshold is low at the best of times but I have spent more time being slowly and excruciatingly bored by children than any other section of the human race.

They were talking about a certain hangout and Johnny said, "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

John McNulty (journalist)

We have made it impossible for children to fall very far—and in so doing, we have robbed them of the joys of climbing high.

I am interested in letting many people know that Wikipedia is a flawed and irresponsible research tool.

John Seigenthaler Sr.

The Gun Control Act of 1968 was passed, not to control guns, but to control blacks.

Robert Sherrill

The winner is not the player who wins the most pots. The winner is the player who wins the most money.

According to legend, Telford is so dull that the bypass was built before the town.

On the Midlands new-town

Victor Lewis-Smith

Most people think I have a lot of fun and that I'm a pretty good driver but they don't take my driving all that seriously.

I sometimes still go out hunting for bad weather, flying low in simple airplanes to explore the inner reaches of the clouds. Less experienced pilots occasionally join me, not to learn formal lessons about weather flying, but with a more advanced purpose in mind - to accompany me in the slow accumulation of experience through circumstances that never repeat in a place that defies mastery.

William Langewiesche

It would seem the incoming Trump administration plans to handle its affairs — domestic and foreign — in a manner that meets the dictionary definition of a rogue state as one that conducts its policy in a dangerously unpredictable way.