Quotes by Journalists - Page 196

The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.
Walt Whitman
People will change their habits quickly IF they have a strong reason for doing so.
Thomas L. Friedman
He is not the leader of great causes, but the broker of little ones.
Robert A. Caro
With Johnson, you never quite knew if he was out to lift your heart or your wallet. Roy Wilkins
Robert A. Caro
Officers came and went and were never a part of daily life.
David Halberstam
The men were always wary of an officer who took form more seriously than function.
David Halberstam
People who sneer at a half a loaf of bread have never been hungry." George Reedy
Robert A. Caro
He not only had the gift of “reading” men and women, of seeing into their hearts, he also had the gift of putting himself in their place, of not just seeing what they felt but of feeling what they felt, almost as if what had happened to them had happened to him, too.
Robert A. Caro
The air of compromise is rarely appreciated fully by men of principle. C. Vann Woodward
Robert A. Caro
In being able to learn from his mistakes and grow, Eisenhower "was transformed from a mere person into a personage.
Lynne Olson
A sense of messianic purpose makes the national interest almost indistinguishable from the political interests of the president.
Ron Suskind
If you're not reaching back to help anyone then you're not building a legacy.
Germany Kent
Be true to who you are. Don't let the world tell you who to be.
Germany Kent
Moral action – humble and honest – is the tribute that power must at some point pay to reason.
Ron Suskind
Life-shaping institutions tend to start with an idea or revelation. They often become mostly about the preservation and expansion of authority, something they relinquish only with the greatest reluctance.
Ron Suskind
In this era of public survival through continuous storytelling, people want someone who might surprise them.
Ron Suskind
He was rebuilt, reconstituted by vengeance dressed up as high purpose.
Ron Suskind
Lincoln was a master of small group theatrics.
Richard Brookhiser
You can actually herd cats. They can't be forced, of course. But if they sense something they want, if there enticed by something good, they'll follow, even in herds.
Ron Suskind
Success will teach you who your real friends are.
Germany Kent
If you never try, you'll never know. You are what you manifest.
Germany Kent
A storyteller, a displaced poet, will absorb reading differently.
Richard Brookhiser
Young, healthy communities can afford to roll the dice.
Richard Brookhiser
The towering genius is not apolitical.
Richard Brookhiser
He might not take their advice, but he took their temperature.
Richard Brookhiser
Few of us realize our potential; because if we did, we would pursue our passion and walk in our purpose.
Germany Kent
Time was when much of lawyering consisted (according to turn-of-the-century lawyer and statesman Elihu Root) in "telling would-be clients that they are damned fool's, and should stop.
George F. Will
The stories that grow up around a king are strong vines with a fierce grip.
Geraldine Brooks
Avner had lived too long and become too canny to claim the crown of Israel for himself.
Geraldine Brooks
Even though he said no store in uncanny things, he was soldier enough to value with whatever weapon came to hand.
Geraldine Brooks
When a kingdom rests on it, I always expect difficulty. Then, if there is none, no blame. But if there is, one is prepared.
Geraldine Brooks
No one sits, as you do, so close to a king, who does not begin to grasp how the levers of power work, and the cost of the oil that must grease them.
Geraldine Brooks
This night he was a king before he was a man. At this time, this troubled me. Later, I would have cause to wish it were always so.
Geraldine Brooks
David was at his best in group settings, soldier enough to join in the raucous jests, king enough to make it matter that he remembered some moments of bravery or sacrifice, and praised each man accordingly.
Geraldine Brooks
He is able to put aside personal feelings and see the broad strokes. Experience counts in these things.
Geraldine Brooks
David ran through concrete advantages. And then set aside the practical. The pragmatist was gone, replaced by the poet and mystic.
Geraldine Brooks
If soldiering did not interest him, the soldiers themselves were another matter. He loved to sit with the men and draw out their first-hand stories of past campaigns.
Geraldine Brooks
The common soldiers did not blame him for his excessive grief. They knew him. They knew his flaws. Indeed, I think they loved him all the more because he was flawed, as they were, and did not hide his passionate, blemished nature.
Geraldine Brooks
As wars dwindled to skirmishes and our strength grew, so David was able to spend less time with military commanders and more with the engineers and overseers who were fanning out throughout the land, digging cisterns, making roads, fortifying, connecting, and generally making a nation out of our scattered people.
Geraldine Brooks
I have lived most of my life in soldiers’ camps. I know what they saw. I know how they think. Their confidence sours as sudden as curdled milk.
Geraldine Brooks
I thought it best to add nothing further, to let the line of his thought lead him to his own conclusions.
Geraldine Brooks
There may be arrogance – and the laziness of someone who is indefatigable when doing what he enjoys, but only when doing that.
George F. Will
People who have nothing much in mind for next week speak instead about the next century or millennium.
George F. Will
Talk about presidents "taking" the country hither and yon is part of the foam of presidential elections.
George F. Will
He communicates authenticity to an electorate ravenous for it.
Frank Bruni
He uses the nice old words so rich in tradition to be sure I know he means it.
Frank Herbert
There are proven ways to win the loyalty of tough, strong, ferocious men: play on the certain knowledge of their superiority, the mystique of secret covenant, the esprit of shared suffering.
Frank Herbert
Once Trump got his hands around this promising idea, he basically strangled it.
Joe Nocera
Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part on the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him.
Frank Herbert
Delay is as dangerous as the wrong answer.
Frank Herbert
It doesn't follow that the riots mean permanent hostility toward him.
Frank Herbert
My son will wear the title well, the Duke thought, and realized with a sudden chill that this was another death thought.
Frank Herbert
If virtue does not equal powers, powers will be misused.
John Howard Griffin
In person, Mr. Desmond mixes low-key friendliness and on-message discipline.
Jennifer Schuessler
[That] speaks to one of the most important roles of a leader; to boil down an organization's many priorities into a simple plan, so that employees can remember it, internalize it, and act on it.
Adam Bryant
Gen. de Gaulle is only concerned about history, and no jury can dictate the judgment of history." Georges Pompidou
Mark Kurlansky
The first thing I am going to tell my successor is, don't trust the military men – even on military matters." JFK
David Talbot
It is not an overstatement to say that the destiny of the entire human race depends on what is going on in America today. This is a staggering reality to the rest of the world; they must feel like passengers in a supersonic jetliner who are forced to watch helplessly while a passel of drunks, hypes, freaks, and madmen fight for the controls and the pilot's seat. – Eldridge Cleaver, Soul on Ice, 1968
Mark Kurlansky
Just because you can't act EVERYWHERE doesn't mean you don't act ANYWHERE. – Madeleine Albright
Walter Isaacson
As much as Henry Kissinger wanted to attribute historical movement to impersonal forces, he too conceded to "the difference personalities make".
Walter Isaacson