“The newspapers! Sir, they are the most villainous — licentious — abominable — infernal — Not that I ever read them — no — I make it a rule never to look into a newspaper.”

Act I, sc. i.
The Critic (1779)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The newspapers! Sir, they are the most villainous — licentious — abominable — infernal — Not that I ever read them — no…" by Richard Brinsley Sheridan?
Richard Brinsley Sheridan photo
Richard Brinsley Sheridan 58
Irish-British politician, playwright and writer 1751–1816

Related quotes

Mark Twain quote: “If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.”
Mark Twain photo

“If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

No known source in Twain's works.
The earliest known source is a Usenet post from November 2000 https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=israel.francophones/j_b0peHVcJw/YN5cG6Pdk6QJ.
Disputed

Nassim Nicholas Taleb photo

“To be completely cured of newspapers, spend a year reading the previous week’s newspapers.”

Source: The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010), p. 21

V.S. Naipaul photo
Aneurin Bevan photo

“I read the newspapers avidly. It is my one form of continuous fiction.”

Aneurin Bevan (1897–1960) Welsh politician

Interview in The Times (29 March 1960), p. 7
1950s

Gore Vidal photo

“Half the American people never read a newspaper. Half never vote for President — the same half?”

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer

Sometimes quoted as: Half of the American people never read a newspaper. Half never voted for president. One hopes it is the same half.
[Bill, Maxwell, http://www.sptimes.com/2002/07/07/Columns/In_gloomy_times__let_.shtml, In gloomy times, let's try to find a sense of humor, St. Petersberg Times, 2002-07-07, 2008-10-04]
Variant: Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.
Source: 1990s, Screening History (1992), Ch. 1: The Prince and the Pauper, p. 5

Karl Barth photo
Marshall McLuhan photo

“People don't actually read newspapers. They step into them every morning like a hot bath.”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …

Source: 1990s and beyond, The Book of Probes : Marshall McLuhan (2011), p. 184

Thomas Jefferson photo
William Cobbett photo

“But I do not remember ever having seen a newspaper in the house; and, most certainly, that privation did not render us less industrious, happy, or free.”

William Cobbett (1763–1835) English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist

Source: Life and Adventures of Peter Porcupine (1796), P. 22.

William M. Tweed photo

“I don't care a straw for your newspaper articles; my constituents don't know how to read, but they can't help seeing them damned pictures.”

William M. Tweed (1823–1878) United States politician

On the political cartoons of Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly, as quoted in "Article IV: An Episode in Municipal Government" by Charles F. Wingate in The North American Review (July 1875), p. 150

Related topics