Quotes about press
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Koenraad Elst photo
Koenraad Elst photo
Koenraad Elst photo
Sarojini Naidu photo

“God presses not pride but humility in His service. Man knows how to destroy, it is woman`s prerogative to construct. May Sarojini be the instrument in God`s hands for constructing real unity between Hindus and Mussalmans.”

Sarojini Naidu (1879–1949) Indian politician, governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from 1947 to 1949

Mahatma Gandhi, "Sarojini the Singer", 1 December 2013, MK Gandhi Organization http://www.mkgandhi.org/Selected%20Letters/Sarojini/singer.htm,

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar photo
Milton Friedman photo
Evo Morales photo
Nicolás Maduro photo
Thomas Jefferson photo

“About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our Government, and consequently those which ought to shape its Administration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations. Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against antirepublican tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people -- a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority; economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burthened; the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason; freedom of religion; freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

1800s, First Inaugural Address (1801)

Thomas Jefferson photo
Thomas Jefferson photo

“It is really to be lamented that after a public servant has passed a life in important and faithful services, after having given the most plenary satisfaction in every station, it should yet be in the power of every individual to disturb his quiet, by arraigning him in a gazette and by obliging him to act as if he needed a defence, an obligation imposed on him by unthinking minds which never give themselves the trouble of seeking a reflection unless it be presented to them. However it is a part of the price we pay for our liberty, which cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it. To the loss of time, of labour, of money, then, must be added that of quiet, to which those must offer themselves who are capable of serving the public, and all this is better than European bondage. Your quiet may have suffered for a moment on this occasion, but you have the strongest of all supports that of the public esteem.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to John Jay from Paris, France (January 25, 1786). Source: “ From Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 25 January 1786 https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-09-02-0190,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 9, 1 November 1785 – 22 June 1786, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954, p. 215.]
1780s

Clive Staples Lewis photo

“They have an engine called the Press whereby the people are deceived.”

Source: That Hideous Strength (1945), Ch. 13 : They Have Pulled Down Deep Heaven on Their Heads

John Updike photo
Hillary Clinton photo
Norman Thomas photo

“By every test of civil liberty Russian life is at least as much regimented as in the Fascist countries. The press, schools, and radio are if anything more absolutely controlled. … To strike is as dangerous in Russia as in Germany....”

Norman Thomas (1884–1968) American Presbyterian minister and socialist

As quoted in Norman Thomas: Respectable Rebel, Murray B. Seidler, Syracuse University Press, 1961, p. 187

Albert Einstein photo
Chris Hedges photo
Chris Hedges photo
Carl Sagan photo
Carl Sagan photo
Tony Benn photo
Tony Benn photo
Tony Benn photo
Tony Benn photo
John Conyers photo

“I’m not here to tell you my troubles with the administration or — I’m happy to be on the program, because I’ve already read 96 percent of the book, and we’re investigating, but for me to start telling you what might be available and what the problems are and what the challenges are going to be, I think, is very unprofessional in an investigation of this seriousness… It’s under investigation and consideration right now. But the importance of this discussion today is critical not only to the committees — there are four committees, and how they relate to each other will come forward very shortly — but there is also the question of the media, the Fourth Estate, the press. This is now public information that, it seems to me, shouldn’t be great breaking news over a progressive news program, but this has to be investigated by the rest of the media, unless they consider this to be irrelevant or too late, or whatever reasons are, that they’re coerced or afraid themselves, too timid… I consider the relationship of the committees on the subject matter, the responsibility of the media, and the American people being brought into this discussion as the citizens, that in a representative democracy, that’s what all of us are supposed to be working on.”

John Conyers (1929–2019) American politician from Michigan

After Ron Suskind Reveals Bush Admin Ordered Iraq-9/11 Fakery, House Judiciary Chair John Conyers Opens Congressional Probe https://www.democracynow.org/2008/8/14/after_ron_suskind_reveals_bush_admin, DemocracyNow! (14 August 2008)

Charles Webster Leadbeater photo
Alfred von Waldersee photo
Ernest Becker photo
Clement Attlee photo
I. F. Stone photo

“The press, which dropped an Iron Curtain weeks ago on the anti-war speeches of Morse and Gruening, ignored this one, too.”

I. F. Stone (1907–1989) American investigative journalist and author

NPR: Excerpt: The Best of I.F. Stone (5 September 2006)

I. F. Stone photo

“The American government and the American press have kept the full truth about the Tonkin Bay incidents from the American public.”

I. F. Stone (1907–1989) American investigative journalist and author

NPR: Excerpt: The Best of I.F. Stone (5 September 2006)

James Eastland photo
Eugene V. Debs photo
Eugene V. Debs photo
Anna Soubry photo

“We have to call it out…I believe in freedom of the press but everyone has a responsibility not to incite abuse and death threats.”

Anna Soubry (1956) British politician

Theresa May condemns abuse of MPs over Brexit https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42385002 BBC News (19 December 2017)
2017

Otto von Bismarck photo
Johann Most photo
Hannah Arendt photo
Oswald Spengler photo
Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
M. K. Hobson photo

“It is a great weakness of credomancers, Miss Edwards. They often believe their own press.”

M. K. Hobson (1969) American writer

”You’re a credomancer, too,” Emily said.
“I’m also a woman. Failure, struggle, and doubt are my constant companions. They are not always pleasant, but they inoculate me against overconfidence. As such, I would not trade them for all the arrogant bravado in the world.”
Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 18, “The Talleyrand Maneuver” (pp. 282-283)

V. P. Singh photo

“Every day you are being abused by the press and by the sections that had abused us for millennia. If you stand by us, you will get your share of abuse.”

V. P. Singh (1931–2008) Indian politician

Dalit students of JNU addressing him quoted in his interview with Javed M. Ansari and Zafar Agha in: We are ruled by an upper caste Hindu raj http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/dalits-are-a-powerful-secular-force--v.p.-singh/1/307978.html, 29 December 2012.

Ramnath Goenka photo
C. V. Raman photo

“For the Chair of Physics created by Sir Palit, we have been fortunate enough to secure the services of Mr. Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, who has greatly distinguished himself and acquired a European fame by his brilliant research in the domain of Physical Science, assiduously carried on under the most adverse circumstances amidst the distraction of pressing official duties. I rejoice to think that many of these valuable researches have been carried on in the laboratory of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, founded by our late illustrious colleague, Dr. Mahandra Lal Sircar, who devoted a lifetime to the foundation of an institution for the cultivation and advancement of science in this country. I should fail in my duty if I were to restrain myself in my expression of genuine admiration I feel for the courage and spirit of self-sacrifice with which Mr. Raman had decided to exchange a lucrative official appointment with attractive prospects, for a University Professorship, which, I regret to say, does not carry even liberal emoluments. This one instance encourages me to entertain the hope that there will be no lack of seeker after truth in the Temple of Knowledge which it is our ambition to erect.”

C. V. Raman (1888–1970) Indian physicist

Quoted from Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman:A Legend of Modern Indian Science, 22 November 2013, Official Government of Indian website Vigyan Prasar http://www.vigyanprasar.gov.in/scientists/cvraman/raman1.htm,

Byron White photo
Felix Frankfurter photo

“Without a free press there can be no free society. That is axiomatic. However, freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of a free society.”

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American judge

The scope and nature of the constitutional guarantee of the freedom of the press are to be viewed and applied in that light.
New York Times (November 28, 1954).
Judicial opinions

Keshub Chunder Sen photo
Roman Polanski photo

“If I had killed somebody, it wouldn’t have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But… fucking, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to fuck young girls. Juries want to fuck young girls. Everyone wants to fuck young girls!”

Roman Polanski (1933) Polish-French film director, producer, writer, actor, and rapist

Interview https://books.google.ca/books?id=umhoFsnYri8C with Martin Amis (1979), published in Visiting Mrs Nabokov : And Other Excursions (1993), this was modified to censor the word "fuck" when quoted in "Roman Polanski: 'Everyone else fancies little girls too'" by Michael Deacon http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/michaeldeacon/100011795/roman-polanski-everyone-else-fancies-little-girls-too/

Robert Silverberg photo
Prem Rawat photo
Harlan Ellison photo
Samuel Adams photo

“And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of time press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms; or to raise standing armies, unless when necessary for the defence of the United States, or of some one or more of them; or to prevent the people from petitioning, in a peaceable and orderly manner, the federal legislature, for a redress of grievances; or to subject the people to unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons, papers or possessions.”

Samuel Adams (1722–1803) American statesman, Massachusetts governor, and political philosopher

Rejected resolution for a clause to add to the first article of the U.S. Constitution, in the debates of the Massachusetts Convention of 1788 (6 February 1788); this has often been attributed to Adams, but he is nowhere identified as the person making the resolution in Debates and Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Held in the year 1788 And which finally ratified the Constitution of the United States. (1856) p. 86. https://archive.org/details/debatesandproce00peirgoog
Disputed

Abby Martin photo
Scott Jurek photo

“The potential of the human body is immense. You can come out of some of the deepest, darkest holes if you keep pressing forward.”

Scott Jurek (1973) American ultramarthon runner

Interview in the documentary-film The Game Changers by Louie Psihoyos (2018)

Learned Hand photo
Ralph Nader photo
Richard D. Wolff photo
William Cobbett photo
William Cobbett photo

“It has long been a fashion amongst you, which you have had the complaisance to adopt at the instigation of a corrupt press, to call every friend of reform, every friend of freedom, a Jacobin, and to accuse him of French principles. ... What are these principles?—That governments were made for the people, and not the people for governments.—That sovereigns reign legally only by virtue of the people's choice.—That birth without merit ought not to command merit without birth.--That all men ought to be equal in the eye of the law.—That no man ought to be taxed or punished by any law to which he has not given his assent by himself or by his representative.—That taxation and representation ought to go hand in hand.—That every man ought to be judged by his peers, or equals.—That the press ought to be free. ... Ten thousand times as much has been written on the subject in England as in all the rest of the world put together. Our books are full of these principles. ... There is not a single political principle which you denominate French, which has not been sanctioned by the struggles of ten generations of Englishmen, the names of many of whom you repeat with veneration, because, apparently, you forget the grounds of their fame. To Tooke, Burdett, Cartwright, and a whole host of patriots of England, Scotland and Ireland, imprisoned or banished, during the administration of Pitt, you can give the name of Jacobins, and accuse them of French principles. Yet, not one principle have they ever attempted to maintain that Hampden and Sydney did not seal with their blood.”

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

‘To the Merchants of England’, Political Register (29 April 1815), pp. 518–19
1810s

Glenn Greenwald photo
Caryl Phillips photo

“I never really see a book in the context of what went before because when I finish a book I try to press the delete button so that it’s wiped off the hard drive…”

Caryl Phillips (1958) Kittian-British writer

On pushing a book that he’s published out of his mind so that he may start a new one in “YORKSHIRE CALLING: AN INTERVIEW WITH CARYL PHILLIPS” https://www.publicbooks.org/yorkshire-calling-an-interviewwith-caryl-phillips/ in Public Books (2015 May 1)

Ken Thompson photo

“The press, television, and movies make heroes of vandals by calling them whiz kids. ... There is obviously a cultural gap. The act of breaking into a computer system has to have the same social stigma as breaking into a neighbor's house. It should not matter that the neighbor's door is unlocked.”

Ken Thompson (1943) American computer scientist, creator of the Unix operating system

"Reflections on Trusting Trust" http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/360000/358210/reflections.pdf, 1983 Turing Award Lecture, Communications of the ACM 27 (8), August 1984, pp. 761-763.

William L. Shirer photo
Jeff Flake photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“I didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Trump commented on why he didn't wear a face mask as a protection against the coronavirus at a visit to a factory, as quoted in * 2020-05-21
Trump Goes Without Mask For Public Tour of Michigan Factory, Says He ‘Didn’t Want to Give the Press the Pleasure’ of Seeing Him Wearing One
Madeleine Carlisle, 2020, May
Source: https://time.com/5840833/trump-michigan-ford-plant-tour-mask/

J.B. Priestley photo
Henry Way Kendall photo
Joe Biden photo
Pearl S.  Buck photo
Théodore Guérin photo
John Strachey photo
Ingrid Newkirk photo

“We are complete press sluts.”

Ingrid Newkirk (1949) British-American activist

The New Yorker, 2003 April 14.
2003

George Marshall photo

“There isn't one thing in the world hot and hard as knowing there's someone waiting, coming, pressing, wanting you.”

Tim Winton (1960) Australian writer

Part III, Ch.1 - p.199
The Shepherd's Hut (2018)

Donald J. Trump photo

“We don't have freedom of the press in this country, we have suppression of the press”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

In a phone interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News November 29, 2020
2020, November 2020

Ayaz Mutallibov photo

“It is impossible to resent the press. I am no longer involved in politics. Some do not believe this, but it is true.”

Ayaz Mutallibov (1938–2022) Soviet politician, then president of Azerbaijan

Source: "AZƏRBAYCANIN İLK PREZİDENTİ 30 İLİN SİRR SANDIĞINI AÇIR - “Həsən Həsənov özünü atdı Qorbaçovun qabağına…” - VİDEO" https://azpolitika.info/?p=464153 (6 November 2018)

Al-Tabari photo
William Laud photo

“I know the Jesuits are very cunning at these tricks; but if you have no more hold of your printers, than that the press must lie thus open to their corruption.”

William Laud (1573–1645) Archbishop of Canterbury

Source: Letter to William Chillingworth (15 September 1637), quoted in The Works of the Most Reverend Father in God, William Laud, sometime Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. Volume V—History of His Chancellorship, &c (1853), p. 184

João Goulart photo

“Agrarian reform is not the whim of a government or the program of a party. It is the product of the pressing need of all the peoples of the world...”

João Goulart (1918–1976) 24th President of Brazil

Source: João Goulart. Discursos Selecionados do Presidente João Goulart, 2010, FUNAG, 978-85-7631-193-5, 85, pt-br http://funag.gov.br/loja/download/641-Discursos_joao_goulart.pdf,

Alfred Austin photo

“So, timely you came, and well you chose,
You came when most needed, my winter rose.
From the snow I pluck you, and fondly press
Your leaves 'twixt the leaves of my leaflessness.”

Alfred Austin (1835–1913) British writer and poet

Source: "My Winter Rose", stanza VII; p. 23., Lyrical Poems (1891)

Nikola Eterović photo

“The goal of every reform and renewal in the Church is the holiness of its members. The Lord Jesus calls on us constantly to follow the path of ecclesial communion, Catholic faith and holiness in our times, especially among pressing ecclesial and social challenges.”

Nikola Eterović (1951) Croatian Roman Catholic archbishop

Source: German Bishops turn attention to Synod and abuse scandal https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2021-09/germany-bishops-general-assembly-synod-abuse-scandal.html (21 September 2021)

“We press the enemy backward with memories, with the power of history, with scenes of sense and order.”

Jack Cady (1932–2004) American writer

Source: Kilroy Was Here (1996), p. 158

John Lee Ka-chiu photo

“If you are genuinely interested in press freedom, you should support actions against people who have unlawfully exploited the media as a tool to pursue their political or personal gains.”

John Lee Ka-chiu (1957) Chief Executive-elect of Hong Kong

"Who is John Lee? 12 quotes from Hong Kong’s unopposed leadership hopeful" in Hong Kong Free Press https://hongkongfp.com/2022/04/18/who-is-john-lee-12-quotes-from-hong-kongs-unopposed-leadership-hopeful/ (18 April 2022)

Deontay Wilder photo
Ayaan Hirsi Ali photo

“But the more pressing business is what feminists can do to prevent an alien culture of oppression from taking root in the West.”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (1969) Dutch feminist, author

Source: 2010s, Nomad: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations (2010), Chapter 15, “Dishonor, Death, and Feminists” (p. 231)

Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow photo

“I well know that there are many people who press for swifter and more radical solutions of the problems before us.”

Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow (1887–1952) British politician, agriculturalist and colonial administrator (1887-1952)

10 January 1940, Speech at Orient Club, Bombay, also quoted in Speeches and Statements of the Marquess of Linlithgow, p. 229.