James Reston Quotes

11 Sourced Quotes

All politics are based on the indifference of the majority.

James Reston
In foreign policy you have to wait twenty-five years to see how it comes out.

James Reston
This is the devilish thing about foreign affairs: they are foreign and will not always conform to our whim.

James Reston
Europe has a press that stresses opinions; America a press, radio, and television that emphasize news.

James Reston
Moral of the story: A government is the only known vessel that leaks from the top. Moral No. 2: Nobody is immune to the diseases of politics, not even the Crusaders.

James Reston
People are always dying in the Times who don't seem to die in other papers, and they die at greater length and maybe even with a little more grace.

James Reston
The rising power of the United States in world affairs … requires, not a more compliant press, but a relentless barrage of facts and criticism.... Our job in this age, as I see it, is not to serve as cheerleaders for our side in the present world struggle but to help the largest possible number of people to see the realities of the changing and convulsive world in which American policy must operate.

James Reston
Reports of what went on at those meetings got out. Some of the reports were false and misleading, but since governments are the only vessels that leak from the top, a good deal of accurate information leaked out, including the central point that the Big Four agreed on practically nothing.

James Reston
The conflict between the men who make and the men who report the news is as old as time. News may be true, but it is not truth, and reporters and officials seldom see it the same way. In the old days, the reporters or couriers of bad news were often put in the gallows; now they are given the Pulitzer Prize, but the conflict goes on.

James Reston
This is one of the great advantages of The Times: you get so much more to throw away.

James Reston
He inherited some good instincts from his Quaker forebears but by diligent hard work, he overcame them.

James Reston