Roger Cohen Quotations

I think the head and the heart should be united in the strongest writing. You shouldn't lose your ability to be discerning. Good journalism should have emotional content ... Of course, you should try to present every side, and present with real empathy.

We should try to help lay the basic foundation for this part of Europe to move forward and enjoy some of the prosperity and stability that we are enjoying at the end of this century.

This century has been a very bloody one,

There's a very sophisticated campaign to instill fear in journalists, Western and non-Western.

I told her there was unease, discomfort, unhappiness over some of the coverage. There was concern that she'd been convinced in an unwarranted way, a way that was not holding up, of the possible existence of W.M.D.

I told her there was unease, discomfort, unhappiness over some of the coverage, ... There was concern that she'd been convinced in an unwarranted way, a way that was not holding up, of the possible existence of WMD.

Conspiracy theories are the refuge of the disempowered.

Conspiracy theory is the ultimate refuge of the powerless. If you cannot change your own life, it must be that some greater force controls the world.

The riveting moral power of the Arab Spring comes from its homegrown quality. This is about Arabs overcoming fear to become agents of their own transformation and liberation.

Iraq and Afghanistan have exacted a toll on America - in lives, treasure and standing - that it will take a generation to work through.

Interventionism is inextricable from the American idea. If the United States retreats into isolationism, it ceases to be itself ? a nation dedicated, however much it falls short, to a universalist ideal of freedom.

The modern world’s tech-giddy control and facilitation makes us stupid. Awareness atrophies. Dumb gets dumber. Lists are everywhere – the five things you need to know about so-and-so; the eight essential qualities of such-and-such; the 11 delights of somewhere or other. We demand shortcuts, as if there are shortcuts to genuine experiences. These lists are meaningless.

Never underestimate the human capacity for delusion.