9 Edward R. Murrow Quotes on History

Edward R. Murrow quotes on history

9. After last night's debate, the reputation of Messieurs Lincoln and Douglas is secure.

10. Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts.

21. It appeared that most of the men and boys had died of starvation; they had not been executed. But the manner of death seemed unimportant. Murder had been done at Buchenwald. God alone knows how many men and boys have died there during the last twelve years.

22. I pray you to believe what I have said about Buchenwald. I have reported what I saw and heard, but only part of it. For most of it I have no words. If I've offended you by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, I'm not in the least sorry.

31. If none of us ever read a book that was 'dangerous,' had a friend who was 'different,' or joined an organization that advocated 'change,' we would all be just the kind of people Joe McCarthy wants.

38. Our history will be what we make it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes for one week of all three networks, they will there find recorded in black and white, or color, evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live.

56. I have always been on the side of the heretics against those who burned them because the heretics so often turned out to be right. Dead, but right.

57. Language is one of the greatest gifts man has devised for himself. It ranks, alongside the discovery of fire and the wheel, as a major influence in making modern man what he is today.

58. Language is the memory of man. Without it he has no past, a paltry present, and an empty future. With it he can bring his dreams to life.