“News that is sufficiently bad somehow carries its own guarantee of truth. Only good reports need confirmation.”

“There is no excuse whatever for uncritically accepting what one takes over from others. For no thing is good or bad in itself, only as it relates to specific circumstances and to our own intentions. This fact means that there is nothing guaranteed or absolute about conventions; it gives us the daily responsibility of distinguishing good from bad.”

“No act is of itself either good or bad. Only its place in the order of things makes it good or bad.”

“U. S. News Organizations observe the anniversary of September 11 with investigations about the nation's continuing vulnerability to terrorism. First, the New York Daily News reports that two of its reporters carried box cutters, razor knives, and pepper spray on fourteen commercial flights without getting caught. Then ABC News reports that it smuggled fifteen pounds of uranium into New York City. Then Fox News reports that it flew Osama bin Laden to Washington, D. C., and videotaped him touring the White House.”

“All political decisions are taken under great pressure, and if a treaty serves its turn for ten or twenty years, the wisdom of its framers is sufficiently confirmed.”

“I don't feel that I need to play characters who are role models for young people. If you are only good, you leave them to explore the bad on their own.”

“Somehow, bad news, however ridden with static, however filled with echoes, always manages to be conveyed.”

“Making critical thinking a national educational norm is the cognitive vaccine America needs to have a fighting chance of maintaining sufficient sanity. Good thinking prevents and alleviates bad thinking.”

“I get all the news I need from the weather report.”

“Love is needing someone. Love is putting up with someone's bad qualities because they somehow complete you.”