Eric Sevareid Quotes

The biggest big business in America is not steel, automobiles, or television. It is the manufacture, refinement and distribution of anxiety.

Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves.

The bigger the information media, the less courage and freedom they follow. Bigness means weakness.

Better to trust the man who is frequently in error than the one who is never in doubt.

The major cause of problems are solutions

The difference between the men and the boys in politics is, and always has been , that the boys want to be something, while the men want to do something.

You can't know who you are, as a nation or a people, unless you know where you've been.

Next to power without honor, the most dangerous thing in the world is power without humor.

It is perfectly clear that people, given no alternative, will choose tyranny over anarchy, because anarchy is the worst tyranny of all... The special nature of liberties is that they can be defended only as long as we still have them. So the very first signs of their erosion must be resisted, whether the issue be domestic surveillance by the Army, so-called preventive detention, or the freedom of corporate television, or that of a campus newspaper.

Tenacity is a pretty fair substitute for bravery, and the best form of tenacity I know is expressed in a Danish fur trapper's principle: "The next mile is the only one a person really has to make."

Wisdom is essential in a president, the appearance of wisdom will do in a candidate.

With breathtaking rapidity, we are destroying all that was lovely to look at and turning America into a prison house of the spirit. The affluent society, with relentless single-minded energy, is turning our cities, most of suburbia and most of our roadways into the most affluent slum on earth.

I'm sort of a pessimist about tomorrow and an optimist about the day after tomorrow.

It is only people with a sense of personal responsibility who can help others. It is only people with a sense of personal responsibility who can be helped in a lasting way.

The five happiest people I have ever met all had this strange little quirk of referring to their jobs as a 'calling.'

No man was ever more than about nine meals away from crime or suicide.

For children, Christmas is anticipation. For adults, Christmas is memory.

There are only two kinds of people in the world, suckers and people that can be had. Everyone can be had, but a sucker will always bet you $50 that he can't be had. Maybe magicians are around to remind us we can all be had, so we don't become suckers.

I have never quite grasped the worry about the power of the press. After all, it speaks with a thousand voices, in constant dissonance.

The most distinguished hallmark of the American society is and always has been change.

Consultant: an ordinary guy more than 50 miles from home.

Brotherhood is not so wild a dream as those, who profit by postponing it, pretend.

The best way to get thrown out of the columnists' club is to be uncertain about anything whatsoever on this earth.

Men want power in order to do something. Boys want power in order to be something.

Saints are usually killed by their own people.