Edward R. Murrow: Quote File

A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices. 

Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar. 

When the politicians complain that TV turns the proceedings into a circus, it should be made clear that the circus was already there, and that TV has merely demonstrated that not all the performers are well trained. 

Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them. (television broadcast, December 31, 1955)

The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. 

The politician in my country seeks votes, affection and respect, in that order. With few notable exceptions, they are simply men who want to be loved. 

We are in the same tent as the clowns and the freaks-that's show business. 

We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home. 

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it. 

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men- not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.

No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices. 

To be persuasive we must be belivable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful