Quote #3

I sought in political reporting what Galsworthy in another context had called 'the significant trifle'- the bit of dialogue, the overlooked fact, the buried observation which illuminated the realities of the situation.

More from I. F. Stone

  1. Every time we are confronted with a new revolution we take to the opium pipes of our own propaganda.
  2. The fault I find with most American newspapers is not the absence of dissent. it is the absence of news. With a dozen or so honorable excep…
  3. There must be renewed recognition that societies are kept stable and healthy by reform, not by thought police; this means there must be fre…
  4. A certain moral imbecility marks all ethnocentric movements.
  5. All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out.
  6. Lifelong dissent has more than acclimated me cheerfully to defeat. It has made me suspicious of victory. I feel uneasy at the very idea of …
  7. I thought I might teach philosophy but the atmosphere of a college faculty repelled me; the few islands of greatness seemed to be washed by…
  8. Every government is run by liars and nothing they say should be believed.

All I. F. Stone quotes