Like Eden’s dead probationary tree, Knowledge of good and evil is from thee.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
You will generally find that the person who doesn’t give a continental what the newspapers say about ‘im either one way or the other subscribes to a press clipping bureau anyway.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
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
Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers another.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Journalists aren’t supposed to praise things. It’s a violation of work rules almost as serious as buying drinks with our own money or absolving the CIA of something.
—P. J. O’Rourke (1947–2022) American Journalist, Political Satirist
Journalists do not live by words alone, although sometimes they have to eat them.
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–65) American Diplomat, Politician, Orator
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
In journalism it is simpler to sound off than it is to find out. It is more elegant to pontificate than it is to sweat.
—Harold Evans (1925–2020) British-American Journalist, Writer
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
Get your facts first, and then you can distort ’em as you please.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Every journalist owes tribute to the evil one.
—Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer
I find I journalize too tediously. Let me try to abbreviate.
—James Boswell (1740–95) Scottish Biographer, Diarist
Journalism without a moral position is impossible. Every journalist is a moralist. It’s absolutely unavoidable. A journalist is someone who looks at the world and the way it works, someone who takes a close look at things every day and reports what she sees, someone who represents the world, the event, for others. She cannot do her work without judging what she sees.
—Marguerite Duras (1914–96) French Novelist, Playwright
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
There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil – remain detached from the great
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator, Writer
We live under a government of men and morning newspapers.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
Our job is like a baker’s work—his rolls are tasty as long as they’re fresh; after two days they’re stale; after a week, they’re covered with mould and fit only to be thrown out.
—Ryszard Kapuscinski (1932–2007) Polish Journalist
Bad manners make a journalist.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Journalism is concerned with events, poetry with feelings. Journalism is concerned with the look of the world, poetry with the feel of the world.
—Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982) American Poet, Dramatist
Journalism will kill you, but it will keep you alive while you’re at it.
—Horace Greeley (1811–72) American Elected Rep, Politician, Reformer, Editor
The real news is bad news.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
Reasons for not keeping a notebook: 1) the ambiguity of the reader
—Lionel Trilling (1905–75) American Literary Critic
I would sooner call myself a journalist than an author for a journalist is a journeyman.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
I get up in the morning with an idea for a three-volume novel and by nightfall it’s a paragraph in my column.
—Don Marquis (1878–1937) American Humorist, Journalist, Author
I am a journalist and, under the modern journalist’s code of Olympian objectivity (and total purity of motive), I am absolved of responsibility. We journalists don’t have to step on roaches. All we have to do is turn on the kitchen light and watch the critters scurry.
—P. J. O’Rourke (1947–2022) American Journalist, Political Satirist
If, for instance, they have heard something from the postman, they attribute it to “a semi-official statement”; if they have fallen into conversation with a stranger at a bar, they can conscientiously describe him as “a source that has hitherto proved unimpeachable.” It is only when the journalist is reporting a whim of his own, and one to which he attaches minor importance, that he defines it as the opinion of “well-informed circles.”
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–66) British Novelist, Essayist, Biographer
Journalism allows its readers to witness history; fiction gives its readers an opportunity to live it.
—John Hersey (1914–93) American Novelist, Journalist
We now demand the light artillery of the intellect; we need the curt, the condensed, the pointed, the readily diffused—in place of the verbose, the detailed, the voluminous, the inaccessible. On the other hand, the lightness of the artillery should not degenerate into pop-gunnery—by which term we may designate the character of the greater portion of the newspaper press—their sole legitimate object being the discussion of ephemeral matters in an ephemeral manner.
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) American Poet
If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer, and his hands are too shaky to perform operations, he becomes a journalist.
—Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American Novelist Essayist