James Reston Quotations

All politics are based on the indifference of the majority.

In any war, the first casualty is common sense, and the second is free and open discussion.

Stick with the optimists. It's going to be tough enough even if they're right.

Europe has a press that stresses opinions; America a press, radio, and television that emphasize news.

If it's far away, it's news, but if it's close at home, it's sociology.

This is the devilish thing about foreign affairs: they are foreign and will not always conform to our whim.

This is the very devilish thing about foreign affairs: they are foreign and will not always conform to our whim.

Golf: A plague invented by the Calvinistic Scots as a punishment for man's sins.

Americans have always been able to handle austerity and even adversity. Prosperity is what is doing us in.

The conflict between the men who make and the men who report the news is as old as time. News may be true, but it is not truth, and reporters and officials seldom see it the same way. In the old days, the reporters or couriers of bad news were often put to the gallows; now they are given the Pulitzer Prize, but the conflict goes on.