Daniel J. Boorstin Quotations | Page 2

The force of the advertising word and image dwarfs the power of other literature in the 20th century.

Until now when we have started to talk about the uniqueness of America we have almost always ended by comparing ourselves to Europe. Toward her we have felt all the attraction and repulsions of Oedipus

The celebrity is a person who is known for his well-knownness.

When I was living in England I found that the more I lived abroad, the more American I discovered I was.

Water, that wonderful, flowing medium, the luck of the planet - which would serve humankind in so many ways, and which would give our planet a special character.

Reading is like the sex act - done privately, and often in bed

God is the celebrity author of the world's best seller. We have made god into the biggest celebrity of all, to contain our own emptiness.

We must abandon the prevalent belief in the superior wisdom of the ignorant.

Not so many years ago there was no simpler or more intelligible notion than that of going on a journey. Travel -movement through space -provided the universal metaphor for change. One of the subtle confusions -perhaps one of the secret terrors -of modern life is that we have lost this refuge. No longer do we move through space as we once did.

In fast-moving, progress-conscious America, the consumer expects to be dizzied by progress. If he could completely understand advertising jargon he would be badly disappointed. The half-intelligibility which we expect, or even hope, to find in the latest product language personally reassures each of us that progress is being made: that the pace exceeds our ability to follow.