Edward R. Murrow Quotations

Edward R. Murrow

Anyone who isn't confused really doesn't understand the situation.

Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices -- just recognize them.

If you put a direct question, the interviewee will answer it as he has probably answered the same question dozens of times before. Then begins the waiting game. He thinks he has given you the definitive answer. You manage a slightly uncomprehending, puzzled expression, and you can watch his mind work. 'You stupid oaf, if you didn't comprehend that, I'll put it in language you can understand' and proceeds to do so. Then, in the course of editing, you throw out the first answer and use the second one.

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.

The obscure we always see sooner or later; the obvious always seems to take a little longer.

We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we ... remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were, for the moment, unpopular.