Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
Information can tell us everything. It has all the answers. But they are answers to questions we have not asked, and which doubtless don’t even arise.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
One of the effects of living with electric information is that we live habitually in a state of information overload. There’s always more than you can cope with.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
Information is, above all, a principle of economy. The fewer data needed, the better the information. An overload of information leads to information blackout. It does not enrich, but impoverishes.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
Facts don’t cease to exist because they are ignored.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
Whatever bad awaits, don’t let it spoil the present moment.
—Marty Nemko (b.1950) American Career Coach
Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American Writer
The stone age was marked by man’s clever use of crude tools; the information age, to date, has been marked by man’s crude use of clever tools.
—Unknown
There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation.
—Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) English Polymath, Philosopher, Sociologist, Political Theorist
Facts are stubborn things.
—Alain-Rene Lesage (1668–1747) French Novelist, Dramatist
When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.
—Ursula K. Le Guin (b.1929) American Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer
Information networks straddle the world. Nothing remains concealed. But the sheer volume of information dissolves the information. We are unable to take it all in.
—Gunter Grass (1927–2015) German Novelist, Poet
Private information is practically the source of every large modern fortune.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
We have for the first time an economy based on a key resource Information that is not only renewable, but self-generating. Running out of it is not a problem, but drowning in it is.
—John Naisbitt American Trend Analyst
The key to security is public information.
—Margaret Chase Smith (1897–1995) American Politician
As a rule…he who has the most information will have the greatest success in life.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
My sources are unreliable, but their information is fascinating.
—Ashleigh Brilliant (b.1933) British Cartoonist, Author
Chock them so … full of “facts” they feel stuffed, but absolutely “brilliant” with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving.
—Ray Bradbury (b.1920) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
In a crisis of choice when you are perplexed and do not know which way to go, it might be good to consult several persons.
—Thomas Keating (1923–2018) American Trappist Monk
Soft data, hard conflicts.
—Gerhard Kocher (b.1939) Swiss Publicist, Aphorist
Among all the world’s races, some obscure Bedouin tribes possibly apart, Americans are the most prone to misinformation. This is not the consequence of any special preference for mendacity, although at the higher levels of their public administration that tendency is impressive. It is rather that so much of what they themselves believe is wrong.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American Poet
Facts as facts do not always create a spirit of reality, because reality is a spirit.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing was to add to the sum of accurate information in the world.
—Margaret Mead (1901–78) American Anthropologist, Social Psychologist
Information is a source of learning. But unless it is organized, processed, and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden, not a benefit.
—C. William Pollard (b.1938) American Businessman
Life happens too fast for you ever to think about it. If you could just persuade people of this, but they insist on amassing information.
—Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge.
—John Naisbitt American Trend Analyst
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
The more the data banks record about each one of us, the less we exist.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
We aren’t in an information age, we are in an entertainment age.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
Information’s pretty thin stuff unless mixed with experience.
—Clarence Day (1874–1935) American Author, Humorist
There is a profound difference between information and meaning.
—Warren Bennis (1925–2014) American Business Academic, Author
The telephone book is full of facts, but it doesn’t contain a single idea.
—Mortimer J. Adler (1902–2001) American Philosopher, Educator
Information is a negotiator’s greatest weapon.
—Victor Kiam (1926–2001) American Entrepreneur
Information is the currency of democracy.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer