It was a fatal day when the public discovered that the pen is mightier than the paving-stone, and can be made as offensive as the brickbat. They at once sought for the journalist, found him, developed him, and made him their industrious and well-paid servant. It is greatly to be regretted, for both their sakes.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
The journalists have constructed for themselves a little wooden chapel, which they also call the Temple of Fame, in which they put up and take down portraits all day long and make such a hammering you can’t hear yourself speak.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
Like Eden’s dead probationary tree, Knowledge of good and evil is from thee.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
I think there ought to be a club in which preachers and journalists could come together and have the sentimentalism of the one matched with the cynicism of the other. That ought to bring them pretty close to the truth.
—Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) American Christian Theologian
Journalists are like dogs, when ever anything moves they begin to bark.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
The difference between journalism and literature is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Journalism is organized gossip.
—Edward Eggleston (1837–1902) American Historian, Novelist
He types his labored column—weary drudge! Senile fudge and solemn: spare, editor, to condemn these dry leaves of his autumn.
—Robertson Davies (1913–95) Canadian Novelist, Playwright, Essayist
Journalism is literature in a hurry.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
Journalism allows its readers to witness history; fiction gives its readers an opportunity to live it.
—John Hersey (1914–93) American Novelist, Journalist
We need not be theologians to see that we have shifted responsibility for making the world interesting from God to the newspaperman.
—Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American Historian, Academic, Attorney
The lowest form of popular culture—lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people’s lives—has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage.
—Carl Bernstein (1944–73) American Journalist, Writer
Exaggeration of every kind is as essential to journalism as it is to dramatic art, for the object of journalism is to make events go as far as possible
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
The man must have a rare recipe for melancholy, who can be dull in Fleet Street.
—Charles Lamb (1775–1834) British Essayist, Poet
The daily newspaper sustains the same relation to the young writer as the hospital to the medical student.
—George Horace Lorimer (1867–1937) American Magazine Editor, Writer
In the real world, nothing happens at the right place at the right time. It is the job of journalists and historians to correct that.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Evidently there are plenty of people in journalism who have neither got what they liked nor quite grown to like what they get. They write pieces they do not much enjoy writing, for papers they totally despise, and the sad process ends by ruining their style and disintegrating their personality, two developments which in a writer cannot be separate, since his personality and style must progress or deteriorate together, like a married couple in a country where death is the only permissible divorce.
—Claud Cockburn (1904–81) English Journalist
I find I journalize too tediously. Let me try to abbreviate.
—James Boswell (1740–95) Scottish Biographer, Diarist
The paper which obtains a reputation for publishing authentic news and only that which is fit to print, … will steadily increase its influence.
—Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) Scottish-American Industrialist
Personal columnists are jackals and no jackal has been known to live on grass once he had learned about meat—no matter who killed the meat for him.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
We live under a government of men and morning newspapers.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one.
—A. J. Liebling (1904–63) American Journalist, Press Critic
The facts fairly and honestly presented; truth will take care of itself.
—William Allen White (1868–1944) American Journalist, Author, Editor
Most rock journalism is people who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk, for people who can’t read.
—Frank Zappa (1940–93) American Rock Guitarist, Singer, Composer
Journalism is the entertainment business.
—Frank Herbert (1920–86) American Science Fiction Writer
Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.
—Henry Grunwald (1922–2005) American Editor, Diplomat
A petty reason perhaps why novelists more and more try to keep a distance from journalists is that novelists are trying to write the truth and journalists are trying to write fiction.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
It was when “reporters” became “journalists” and when “objectivity” gave way to “searching for truth,” that an aura of distrust and fear arose around the New Journalist.
—Georgie Anne Geyer (1935–2019) American Journalist, Correspondent
The journalist holds up an umbrella, protecting society from the fiery hail of conscience.
—George William Russell (1867–1935) Irish Author, Poet, Editor, Critic, Painter
Journalism is the first rough draft of history.
—Indian Proverb
Leave a Reply