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Quotes about journalism

52 quotes from 38 people

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If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.
Benjamin Franklin1706–1790“Apology for Printers” (1730)
- Freedom
One of the objects of a newspaper is to understand popular feeling and to give expression to it; another is to arouse among the people certain desirable sentiments; and the third is fearlessly to expose popular defects.
Mahatma Gandhi1869–1948Hind Swaraj (1909), Sect. 1
I believe the media can be the greatest force for peace on Earth. Instead, all too often, it is wielded as a weapon of war. That has to be challenged.
Amy Goodmanborn 1957Democracy Now!: Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America (2016), Introduction
- War & Peace
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 Greene1904–1991Letter to critic Stephen Pile, The Sunday Times (London, 18 January 1981)
- Writing
Decency is not news; it is buried in the obituaries — but it is a force stronger than crime.
Robert A. Heinlein1907–1988This I Believe: Our Noble, Essential Decency (1952)
- Virtue
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 Hemingway1899–1961A Letter from Cuba (1934)
- Clever Jabs
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826
- Reading
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Letter to Dr. James Currie (28 January 1786) Lipscomb & Bergh 18:ii
No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Letter to George Washington (9 September 1792)
- Government
The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Letter to John Norvell (11 June 1807)
- Truth & Lies
Since truth and reason have maintained their ground against false opinions in league with false facts, the press, confined to truth, needs no other legal restraint; the public judgment will correct false reasoning and opinions on a full hearing of all parties.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Jefferson’s Second Inaugural Address (1805)
- Freedom
- Truth & Lies
If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: ‘President Can’t Swim.’
Lyndon B. Johnson1908–1973Often credited to Margaret Thatcher
- Clever Jabs
The freedom of the press works in such a way that there is not much freedom from it.
Grace Kelly1929–1982Attributed to Kelly in: Robert Andrews Ed. (1987) The Routledge dictionary of quotations
- Freedom
To have news value is to have a tin can tied to one’s tail.
T. E. Lawrence1888–1935Letter (1 April 1935); published in The Letters of T.E. Lawrence (1988), edited by Malcolm Brown.
- Fame
The printing press is the greatest weapon in the armory of the modern commander…
T. E. Lawrence1888–1935The Evolution of A Revolt (1920)
- War & Peace