A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.
--Edward R. Murrow
A satellite has no conscience.
--Edward R. Murrow
All I can hope to teach my son is to tell the truth and fear no man.
--Edward R. Murrow
American traditions and the American ethic require us to be truthful, but the most important reason is that truth is the best propaganda and lies are the worst. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. It is as simple as that.
--Edward R. Murrow
Anyone who isn't confused doesn't really understand the situation.
--Edward R. Murrow
Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts.
--Edward R. Murrow
During the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live. If this state of affairs continues, we may alter an advertising slogan to read: LOOK NOW, PAY LATER.
--Edward R. Murrow
Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices- just recognize them.
--Edward R. Murrow
Except for those who think in terms of pious platitudes or dogma or narrow prejudice (and those thoughts we aren't interested in), people don't speak their beliefs easily, or publicly.
--Edward R. Murrow
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 just the kind of people Joe McCarthy wants.
--Edward R. Murrow
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.
--Edward R. Murrow
Just once in a while let us exalt the importance of ideas and information.
--Edward R. Murrow
Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit.
--Edward R. Murrow
No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices.
--Edward R. Murrow
Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.
--Edward R. Murrow
People say conversation is a lost art; how often I have wished it were.
--Edward R. Murrow
Perhaps we should warn you that there is one thing you won't read, and that is a pat answer for the problems of life.
--Edward R. Murrow
Putting people in a room and strapping wires to their wrist to find out if I make them tingle when I'm telling them about Beirut is a long way from Edward R. Murrow.
--Linda Ellerbee
The fact that your voice is amplified to the degree where it reaches from one end of the country to the other does not confer upon you greater wisdom or understanding than you possessed when your voice reached only from one end of the bar to the other.
--Edward R. Murrow
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.
--Edward R. Murrow
The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer.
--Edward R. Murrow
The only thing that counts is the right to know, to speak, to think- that, and the sanctity of the courts. Otherwise it's not America.
--Edward R. Murrow
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.
--Edward R. Murrow
The politician is... trained in the art of inexactitude. His words tend to be blunt or rounded, because if they have a cutting edge they may later return to wound him.
--Edward R. Murrow
The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.
--Edward R. Murrow
This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and even it can 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. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.
--Edward R. Murrow
To be persuasive, we must be believable; to be believable, we must be credible; to be credible, we must be truthful.
--Edward R. Murrow
We are in the same tent as the clowns and the freaks- that's show business.
--Edward R. Murrow
We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
--Edward R. Murrow
We cannot make good news out of bad practice.
--Edward R. Murrow
We hardly need to be reminded that we are living in an age of confusion- a lot of us have traded in our beliefs for bitterness and cynicism or for a heavy package of despair, or even a quivering portion of hysteria. Opinions can be picked up cheap in the market place while such commodities as courage and fortitude and faith are in alarmingly short supply.
--Edward R. Murrow
We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.
--Edward R. Murrow
We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and remember we are not descended from fearful men.
--Edward R. Murrow
When politicians complain that TV turns 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.
--Edward R. Murrow
When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.
--Edward R. Murrow
Found 35 occurence(s) in 52,041 quotation(s).