Edward R. Murrow Quotes.
Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit.
I simply cannot accept that there are on every story two equal and logical sides to an argument.
No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.
Senator McCarthy’s reckless and unfounded attempt to impugn my loyalty is just one more example of his typical tactic of attempting to tie up to Communism anyone who disagrees with him.
When the politicians complain that TV turns the proceedings into a circus, it should be made clear that the circus was already there, and that TV has merely demonstrated that not all the performers are well trained.
A reporter is always concerned with tomorrow. There’s nothing tangible of yesterday. All I can say I’ve done is agitate the air ten or fifteen minutes and then boom – it’s gone.
If none of us ever read a book that was “dangerous,” had a friend who was “different,” or joined an organization that advocated “change,” we would all be the kind of people Joe McCarthy wants.
If we were to do the Second Coming of Christ in color for a full hour, there would be a considerable number of stations which would decline to carry it on the grounds that a Western or a quiz show would be more profitable.
Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices – just recognize them.
We cannot make good news out of bad practice.
To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful.
Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.
Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts.
Fame is morally neutral.
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.
The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer.
Just once in a while let us exalt the importance of ideas and information.
I have an old-fashioned belief that Americans like to make up their own minds on the basis of all available information.
I was greatly influenced by one of my teachers. She had a zeal not so much for perfection as for steady betterment-she demanded not excellence so much as integrity.
The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it.
Good night, and good luck.
This instrument [radio] can teach. It can illuminate, yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it’s nothing but wires and lights in a box.
We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
The politician in my country seeks votes, affection and respect, in that order. With few notable exceptions, they are simply men who want to be loved.
To be credible we must be truthful.
