Walter Cronkite Quotes

“A liberal to me is one who – and it suits some of the dictionary definitions – is unbeholden to any specific belief or party or group or person, but makes up his or her mind on the basis of the facts and the presentation of those facts at the time. That defines what I am.”

“A lot of the questions raised about television's power and influence on events have applied throughout history to every mass-communications medium – most particularly print, because that's the medium we've had the longest.”

“Advertising's always been a considerable pressure on publishers.”

“America's health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.”

“Anchormen shouldn't cry.”

“Beyond being timely, an obituary has a more subjective duty: to assess its subject's impact.”

“Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day – 23 minutes – and that's supposed to be enough.”

“I can't imagine a person becoming a success who doesn't give this game of life everything he's got.”

“I do not consider a liberal necessarily to be a leftist.”

“I don't believe in these headline-hunting interviews. That's just not my style.”

“I had as much time to prepare for that moon landing as NASA did, and I still was speechless when it happened. It just was so awe-inspiring to actually be able to see the thing through the television that was a miracle in itself.”

“I have never voted a party line. I vote on the individual and the issues.”

“I learned early on that in the real world, the masks of tragedy and comedy adorn the proscenium of every life.”

“I never ceased to be surprised when southern whites, at their homes or clubs, told racial jokes and spoke so derogatorily of blacks while longtime servants, for whom they quite clearly had some affection, were well within earshot.”

“I think cameras ought to be everywhere the reporters are allowed to go. I think, furthermore, reporters and cameras ought to be everywhere that the Constitution says the public can go.”

“I think people make way too much of ratings.”

“I wanted to have more time to play and reflect, but I find retirement more stressful than having a nice, steady job because I have to make decisions about where I want to be.”

“In seeking truth you have to get both sides of a story.”

“It's a little hard not to be an elitist when you're making millions of dollars a year.”

“It's always hard, after you've been in command, to take a lesser role.”

“Maybe I'm just a slow learner or something, but I like to have things laid out as plainly and simply as possible.”

“Our job is only to hold up the mirror – to tell and show the public what has happened.”

“The perils of duck hunting are great – especially for the duck.”

“There is no such thing as a little freedom. Either you are all free, or you are not free.”

“We are not educated well enough to perform the necessary act of intelligently selecting our leaders.”

“We have more and more one-newspaper towns, and that troubles me.”

“Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.”

“When you're bringing in a fairly unknown candidate challenging a sitting president, the population needs a lot more information than reduced coverage provides.”

“With police wielding unprecedented powers to invade privacy, tap phones and conduct searches seemingly at random, our civil liberties are in a very precarious condition.”

“You think you would react one way when a situation develops and, and when the sharp shells are flying, you don't quite stand up like you think you might.”