WIST Quotations

Colton, Charles Caleb -- Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 468 (1820)

Dave — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 18:48:17 +0000

Despotism can no more exist in a nation until the liberty of the press be destroyed, than night can happen before the sun is set.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 468 (1820)
(Source)

Ivins, Molly -- Essay (1990-02), “Mimic Men,” Mother Jones

Dave — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 19:00:23 +0000

The most disturbing development among the Washington press corps is a collective amnesia about the purpose of a newspaper — which is to gather news. The mortal sins of the press have always been our sins of omission, not our sins of commission, no matter what you may have heard about bias, hubris, or anything else. It is the stories we don’t get, the ones we miss, pass over, fail to recognize, don’t pick up on, that will send us to hell.

Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (1990-02), “Mimic Men,” Mother Jones
(Source)

Collected in Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? (1991).

Fitzgerald, Penelope -- Human Voices, ch. 1 (1980)

Dave — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 17:16:47 +0000

Truth ensures trust, but not victory, or even happiness.

Penelope Fitzgerald (1916-2000) Novelist, poet, essayist, biographer
Human Voices, ch. 1 (1980)
(Source)

Writing of BBC News during World War 2.

Teller, Edward -- The Pursuit of Simplicity (1980)

Dave — Fri, 24 Sep 2021 15:32:18 +0000

Good news goes unnoticed. This is a well-known property of the press in the free world. Improvements are never dramatic. Life improves slowly and goes wrong fast, and only catastrophe is clearly visible.

Edward Teller (1908-2003) Hungarian-American theoretical physicist
The Pursuit of Simplicity (1980)
(Source)

Chesterton, Gilbert Keith -- “The Purple Wig,” The Wisdom of Father Brown (1914)

Dave — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 20:36:56 +0000

I know that journalism largely consists in saying, “Lord Jones Dead” to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
“The Purple Wig,” The Wisdom of Father Brown (1914)
(Source)

While the quoted phrase uses a headline style, omitting the article, the vast majority of copies of it read "Lord Jones is dead." Other paraphrases:

"Journalism is there to tell us Jones is dead, even though it didn’t tell us he was alive."
"Journalism is the art of making interesting the fact that Lady Jones is dead , even to those who had never known that she was alive."
"Our business of news is telling the world that Lord Jones is dead when most of us did not even know he was alive."

Nash, Ogden -- “Everybody Tells Me Everything,” The Face Is Familiar (1940)

Dave — Fri, 24 Jul 2020 14:48:13 +0000

I find it very difficult to enthuse

Over the current news.

Just when you think that at least the outlook is so black that it can grow no blacker, it worsens,

And that is why I do not like the news, because there has never been an era when so many things were going so right for so many of the wrong persons.

Ogden Nash (1902-1971) American poet
“Everybody Tells Me Everything,” The Face Is Familiar (1940)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1945-05), “Notes on Nationalism,” Polemic Magazine (1945-10)

Dave — Fri, 03 Aug 2018 15:22:53 +0000

Although endlessly brooding on power, victory, defeat, revenge, the nationalist is often somewhat uninterested in what happens in the real world. What he wants is to feel that his own unit is getting the better of some other unit, and he can more easily do this by scoring off an adversary than by examining the facts to see whether they support him.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1945-05), “Notes on Nationalism,” Polemic Magazine (1945-10)
(Source)

Fairlie, Henry -- “Can You Believe Your Eyes?” Horizon (Spring 1967)

Dave — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 21:55:58 +0000

Life is not made up of dramatic incidents — even the life of a nation. It is made up of slowly evolving events and processes, which newspapers, by a score of different forms of emphasis, can reasonably attempt to explore from day to day. But television news jerks from incident to incident. For the real world of patient and familiar arrangements, it substitutes an unreal world of constant activity, and the effect is already apparent in the way which the world behaves. It is almost impossible, these days, to consider any problem or any event except as a crisis; and, by this very way of looking at it, it in fact becomes a crisis.

Henry Fairlie (1924-1990) British journalist and social critic
“Can You Believe Your Eyes?” Horizon (Spring 1967)

Adams, John -- Letter (1793-02-27) to Abigail Adams

Dave — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 01:36:40 +0000

I am weary of reading Newspapers. The Times are so full of Events, the whole Drama of the World is such a Tragedy that I am weary of the Spectacle.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1793-02-27) to Abigail Adams
(Source)

Sunstein, Cass R. -- “Reinforce the Walls of Privacy,” New York Times (6 Sep 1997)

Dave — Wed, 14 Dec 2016 05:05:25 +0000

A democracy is badly served when newspapers and television focus so intensely on the personal joys and tragedies of famous people. This kind of “news” crowds out more serious issues, and there is an important difference — as the Constitution’s framers well knew, and as many people today appear to have forgotten — between the public interest and what interests the public.

Cass R. Sunstein (b. 1954) American legal scholar
“Reinforce the Walls of Privacy,” New York Times (6 Sep 1997)

Duncan, Sara Jeannette -- The Imperialist (1904)

Dave — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 18:12:17 +0000

If you have anything to tell me of importance, for God’s sake begin at the end.

Sara Jeannette Duncan (1861-1922) Canadian author and journalist
The Imperialist (1904)

Dunne, Finley Peter -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 18:20:54 +0000

There ain’t any news in being good. You might write the doings of all the convents of the world on the back of a postage stamp, and have room to spare.

Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1936) American humorist and journalist
(Attributed)

Dunne, Finley Peter -- “The News of a Week,” Observations by Mr. Dooley (1902)

Dave — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:09:14 +0000

What’s wan man’s news is another man’s throubles.

[What’s one man’s news is another man’s troubles.]

Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1936) American humorist and journalist
“The News of a Week,” Observations by Mr. Dooley (1902)

Lippmann, Walter -- “Journalism and the Higher Law,” Liberty and the News (1920)

Dave — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 12:17:45 +0000

There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and shame the devil.

Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) American journalist and author
“Journalism and the Higher Law,” Liberty and the News (1920)
(Source)

See Rabelais.

Pratchett, Terry -- Discworld No. 25, The Truth [Lord Vetinari] (2000)

Dave — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:16:07 +0000

Be careful. People like to be told what they already know. Remember that. They get uncomfortable when you tell them new things. New things … well, new things aren’t what they expect. They like to know that, say, a dog will bite a man. That is what dogs do. They don’t want to know that man bites a dog, because the world is not supposed to happen like that. In short, what people think they want is news, but what they really crave is olds … Not news but olds, telling people that what they think they already know is true.

Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Discworld No. 25, The Truth [Lord Vetinari] (2000)

Cicero, Marcus Tullius -- Epistulae ad Atticum [Letters to Atticus], Book 4, Letter 8, sec. 4 (4.8.4) (55 BC) [tr. Winstedt (Loeb) (1912), 8a]

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Write me every day about these points and anything else. When you have nothing to write, write and say so.

[De omnibus cotidie scribas. Ubi nihil erit quot scribas id ipsum scirbito.]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Epistulae ad Atticum [Letters to Atticus], Book 4, Letter 8, sec. 4 (4.8.4) (55 BC) [tr. Winstedt (Loeb) (1912), 8a]
(Source)

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translation:

Write me word on these points and all others every day. When there is nothing for you to write, write and say so.
[tr. Shuckburgh (1900), 8b]

Even if you have nothing to write, write and say so.
[ed. Harbottle (1906)