Walter Cronkite: Trending quotes (page 2)

“The first priority of humankind in this era is to establish an effective system of world law that will assure peace with justice among the peoples of the world.”

“What Alexander Hamilton wrote about the need for law among the 13 states applies today to the approximately 200 sovereignties in our global village:
"To look for a continuation of harmony between a number of independent, unconnected sovereignties in the same neighborhood, would be to disregard the uniform course of human events, and to set at defiance the accumulated experience of ages."”

“All the European democracies have far higher election turnouts than ours, and all of them provide their candidates with extensive free airtime. In fact, of all the major nations worldwide that profess to have democracies, only seven — just seven — do not offer free time. These are Ecuador, Honduras, Malaysia, Taiwan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States of America. Does it make us proud to be on such a list?”

“I regret that, in our attempt to establish some standards, we didn't make them stick. We couldn't find a way to pass them on to another generation, really.”

“Eric's not retiring from television entirely, but only from daily journalism, and that means, of course, this broadcast. It's not only his beautifully-chosen words of wisdom that we shall miss — to this newsman, he's one of the finest essayists of this century — but we shall also miss our almost daily contacts with him in the pursuit of our craft, in which his rare insight and unswerving integrity were a constant source of professional guidance. And yes, it's also true that we shall be the poorer in our self-esteem for no longer being able to call him "colleague," but that's the way it is: Wednesday, November 30, 1977. This is Walter Cronkite, CBS News; good night.”

“More details just arrived. These details about the same as previously: President Kennedy shot today just as his motorcade left downtown Dallas; Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and grabbed Mr. Kennedy, she called 'Oh, no!'; the motorcade sped on. United Press says that the wounds for President Kennedy perhaps could be fatal.”

“This is the essential importance of the Alliance for Better Campaigns' efforts backed by Common Cause. It is our campaign to give free time to all legitimate candidates. … What our campaign asks is that the television industry yield just a tiny percentage of that windfall, less than 1 percent, to fund free airtime.”

“I can't imagine a person becoming a success who doesn't give this game of life everything hes got.”

“I felt that I had been driven from the temple where for nineteen years, along with other believers, I had worshiped the great god News on a daily basis.”

“There's a little more ego involved in these jobs than people might realize.”

“We are not educated well enough to perform the necessary act of intelligently selecting our leaders.”

“I think that our comfort is in our history.”

“Under the Constitution giving 'aid and comfort' to a wartime enemy can lead to a charge of treason.”

“There is no such thing as a little freedom.Either you are all free,or you are not free.”

“I think it is absolutely essential in a democracy to have competition in the media, a lot of competition, and we seem to be moving away from that.”

“The civil rights fight was a very important fight.”

“On television, I tried to absolutely hew to the middle of the road and not show any prejudice or bias in any way.”

“The perils of duck hunting are great - especially for the duck.”

“With all this dolling up and featuring of the news,it's getting harder and harder just to get the facts of the story.”