All the Journalism quotes fit to print

Compiled by César G. Soriano

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"The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments." -George Mason, Virginia Bill of Rights, June 12, 1776 "The liberty of the press is essential to the security of the state"  --John Adams

"Facing the press is more difficult than bathing a leper." -Mother Teresa, 1990

"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost" -Thomas Jefferson, 1786

"The duty of a newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" -adage

"It is a newspaper's duty to print the news and raise hell"  -The Chicago Times, 1861

"No wonder the newspaper is rotten. We need more drunkards." -Actor Edward G. Robinson in "Five Star Final", 1931

"Somewhere along the line, many Americans relegated the media to a notch on the morality scale only slightly above that of child molesters." -Gregory Kane, Baltimore Sun, 1997

"The window to the world can be covered by a newspaper." -Stanislaw Lee, Polish poet, 1962

"Most people don't think for themselves. They lean on newspapers." -Thomas J. Pendergast, 1992

"Everyone has a magic button. Our role as reporters is to find it and push it." -adage

"Newspapers are a unique, irreplaceable and essential part of any community." -Marshall Dana

"Any person that don't read at least one well-written country newspaper is not truly informed." -Will Rogers

"Dip your pen into your arteries and write." -William Allen White

"My Day Clothes are almost worne out...send the poor printer a few gammons, or some meal, some butter, cheese, poultry, etc." -John Peter Zenger

"The theory of a free press is that the truth will emerge from reporting and free discussion, that it will be presented perfectly and instantly in any one account." -Walter Lippmann

"A newspaper is an adviser who does not require to be sought, but who comes of his own accord, and talks to you briefly every day of the common wealth, without distracting you from your private affairs." -Alexis De Tocqueville

"This news is old enough, yet it is every day's news" -William Shakespeare

"The brilliant mission of the newspaper...is to be the high priest of history, the vitalizer of society, the world's great informer..." -Samuel Bowles

"No town can hope prosperity and trade, unless the press shall vigorously aid." -Eugene Fitch

"A journalist is a reporter out of a job." -Mark Twain

"Harmony seldom makes a headline." -Silas Bent

"Here shall the press the people's right maintain, unawed by influence and unbribed by gain." -Joseph Story

"Let me make the newspaper, and I care not who makes the religion and the laws." -Wendell Phillips

"I am not an editor of a newspaper and shall always try to do right and be good so that God will not make me one." -Mark Twain

"Journalism is the first rough draft of history" -Donald Graham

"Perhaps the best thing which can be said about newspapers in the United States is that they are in chronic disagreement with each other. That is what is meant by a free press." -Jim Bishop

"I believe that the country weekly acts as a form of social cement in holding the community together." -Lyndon B. Johnson

"Hot lead can be almost as effective coming from a Linotype as from a firearm." -John O'Hara

"Take me ham away, take away my eggs, even my Chili, but leave me my newspaper." -Will Rogers

"The great art of running a newspaper is the art of guessing where hell is liable to break loose next." -Joseph B. McCullagh

"Count the day lost when your newspaper...has not done something to benefit the community it serves." -Oscar S. Stauffer

"I'd rather smell the printers' ink and hear the presses go around than go to any grand opera in the world." -Winifred Black Bonfils

"A newspaper is a mirror reflecting the public, a mirror more or less defective, but still a mirror." -Arthur Brisbane

"Three hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets." -Napolean Bonaparte

"Our aim is to tell the truth, fear God and make money." -Stuart Paddock

"The world's fanciest VDT system cannot save you if you have no writing ability." -Martin L. Gibson

"Go to press! It's a damn sight better to give 'em a hell of a lot of something than a hell of a lot of nothing." -William Rockhill Nelson

"News is anything you find out today that you didn't know before." -Turner Catledge

"Newspapers tell beforehand what is going to happen - maybe." -Carl Sandburg

"The difference between burlesque and the newspapers is that the former never pretended to be performing a public service by exposure." -I.F. Stone, 1952

"People everywhere confuse what they read in the newspapers with news." -A. J. Liebling, 1956.

"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." -A. J. Liebling, 1960.

"A good newspaper...is a nation talking to itself." -Arthur Miller, 1961

"We live under a government of men and morning newspapers," -Wendell Phillips, 1852

"When a dog bites a man that is not news. But when a man bites a dog, that is news." -Charles A. Dana, New York Sun publisher,1882

"The press is the enemy" -Richard Nixon, 1969

"The nerds have taken over the newsrooms." -Phillip Knightley, author, 1998

"Journalism: an ability to meet the challenge of filling space." -Rebecca West, British novelist, 1956

"Being a reporter is as much a diagnosis as a job description." -Anna Quindlen, author/journalist, 1993


It's got print on it that tells stories that hundreds of good men all over the world have broken their backs to get. It gives a lot of information to a lot of people who wouldn't have known about it if we hadn't taken the trouble to tell them. It's the sum total of the work of a lot of guys who don't quit. It's a newspaper, that's all. Well, you're right for once, stupid. And it only costs 10 cents, that's all. But if you only read the comic section or  the want ads --it's still the best buy for your money in the world" -Actor Robert Conrad in the film, "30"


"You know what people use newspapers for? They roll them up and swat their puppies for wetting on the rug; they spread them on the floor when they're painting the walls; they wrap fish in them; they shred them up and pack their two-bit china in them when they move; or else they pile up in the garage until an inspector declares them a fire hazard! But this also happens to be a couple of more things!" -Actor Robert Conrad in the film, "30"

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