"It has become a sarcastic proverb that a thing must be true if you saw it in a newspaper. That is the opinion intelligent people have of that lying vehicle in a nutshell. But the trouble is that the stupid people–who constitute the grand overwhelming majority of this and all other nations–do believe and are moulded and convinced by what they get out of a newspaper, and there is where the harm lies."... "That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Comedians from the United StatesHumorists from the United StatesNovelists from the United StatesShort story writers from the United StatesSatirists from the United States
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
– Mark Twain "License of the Press" speech, 1873
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mark_Twain
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"Land of religions, cradle of human race, birthplace of human speak, grandmother of legacy, great grandmother of tradi…"
"Land of religions, cradle of human race, birthplace of human speech, grandmother of legend, great grandmother of trad…"
"It is a good and gentle religion, but inconvenient."
"India had the start of the whole world in the beginning of things. She had the first civilization; she had the first …"
"The spider was so contrived that she would not eat grass, but must catch flies, and such things, and inflict a slow a…"
"I haven't a particle of confidence in a man who has no redeeming petty vices whatsoever."
"I'll risk forty dollars that he can outjump any frog in Calaveras county."
"Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run."
"Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest."
"I don't see no p'ints about that frog that's any better'n any other frog."