All Quotes by Kingman Brewster, Jr.
“While the spoken word can travel faster, you can't take it home in your hand. Only the written word can be absorbed wholly at the convenience of the reader.”
“If I take refuge in ambiguity, I assure you that it’s quite conscious.”
“Universities should be safe havens where ruthless examination of realities will not be distorted by the aim to please or inhibited by the risk of displeasure.”
“The newspaper fits the reader’s program while the listener must fit the broadcaster’s program.”
“While the spoken word can travel faster, you can’t take it home in your hand. Only the written word can be absorbed wholly at the convenience of the reader.”
“You and I know that there is a correlation between the creative and the screwball. So we must suffer the screwball gladly.”
“Maybe you are the “cool” generation … If coolness means a capacity to stay calm and use your head in the service of ends passionately believed in, then it has my admiration.”
“There is no greater challenge than to have someone relying upon you; no greater satisfaction than to vindicate his expectation.”
“It is satisfying for the descendant of a dissident refugee from Elizabeth I to present his credentials to Elizabeth II.”
“The function of a briefing paper is to prevent the ambassador from saying something dreadfully indiscreet. I sometimes think its true object is to prevent the ambassador from saying anything at all.”
“Incomprehensible jargon is the hallmark of a profession.”
“We all live in a televised goldfish bowl.”
“Judgment is more than skill. It sets forth on intellectual seas beyond the shores of hard indisputable factual information.”
“I’m very curious to know what the hell they’re saying on the phone, but I’d be more worried if they weren’t talking.”
“Perhaps the most fundamental value of a liberal education is that it makes life more interesting. It allows you to think things which do not occur to the less learned ... it makes it less likely that you will be bored with life.”
“It is the natural desire of each nation to use the other as an instrument of its own purposes and policies. By dint of our mutual dependence, your influence is amplified by our power. Our power is made more responsible and more effective by your influence.”