Quotes by James Reston

“He inherited some good instincts from his Quaker forebearers, but by diligent hard work, he overcame them.”

“In 1487 alone, two hundred heretics had-in one of the greatest euphemisms in the history of language-"relaxed," that is, burned at the stake. Dogs of God, Columbus, the Inquisition, and the Defeat ...”

“If it's far away, it's news, but if it's close at home, it's sociology.”

“One of the advantages of defeat in life - maybe the main advantage - is that it provides an excuse for change. Defeat... invariably leads to new adventures.”

“Nations like individuals have to limit their objectives or take the consequences.”

“The grossest thing in our gross national product today is our language. It is suffering from inflation.”

“This was a great year for preventive worrying. Seldom in recent history have so many people worried about so many things that didn't happen in the end.”

“Nations like individuals have to limit their objectives or take the consequences.”

“People are always dying in the Times who don't seem to die in other papers, and they die at greater length and maybe even with a little more grace.”

“Europe has a press that stresses opinions; America a press, radio, and television that emphasize news.”

“The rising power of the United States in world affairs … requires, not a more compliant press, but a relentless barrage of facts and criticism.... Our job in this age, as I see it, is not to serve ...”

“In foreign policy you have to wait twenty-five years to see how it comes out.”

“He inherited some good instincts from his Quaker forebears but by diligent hard work, he overcame them.”

“Governments are the only vessels that leak from the top”

“I wonder when I hear people scoffing at the four freedoms and wondering whether wars, after all, ever really settle anything. Do we, even now, understand the revolutionary nature of this war? Are w...”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable Rights; that among these, are Life, Liberty, and the pu...”

“The second paragraph of the Declaration continues: That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any ...”

“These are the thing we are really talking about when we speak of our way of life; and these are precisely the things that are at stake in this war. For the Germans have denied every democratic and ...”

“But we must understand that these are not permanent things. Democracy is no heirloom to be possessed and passed on like a Governor Winthrop desk. It is an endowment like life that must be purchased...”

“The root of the trouble lies, I think, in the military situation. We do not like this unprecedented parade of bad news; we don't like to get shoved around all over the world; so we are complaining ...”