Kingman Brewster, Jr. Quotes

The function of a briefing paper is to prevent the ambassador from saying something dreadfully indiscreet. I sometimes think its true object is to prevent the ambassador from saying anything at all.

Universities should be safe havens where ruthless examination of realities will not be distorted by the aim to please or inhibited by the risk of displeasure.

Maybe you are the "cool" generation. If coolness means a capacity to stay calm and use your head in the service of ends passionately believed in, then it has my admiration.

There is no lasting hope in violence, only temporary relief from hopelessness.

We all live in a televised goldfish bowl.

While the spoken word can travel faster, you can't take it home in your hand. Only the written word can be absorbed wholly at the convenience of the reader.

The presumption of innocence is not just a legal concept. In commonplace terms, it rests on that generosity of spirit which assumes the best, not the worst, of the stranger.

If I take refuge in ambiguity, I assure you that it's quite conscious.

You and I know that there is a correlation between the creative and the screwball. So we must suffer the screwball gladly.

The fullness or emptiness of life will be measured by the extent to which a man feels that he has an impact on the lives of others.

Perhaps the most fundamental value of a liberal education is that it makes life more interesting. It allows you to think things which do not occur to the less learned ... it makes it less likely that you will be bored with life.

There is no greater challenge than to have someone relying upon you; no greater satisfaction than to vindicate his expectation.

Incomprehensible jargon is the hallmark of a profession.

The newspaper fits the reader's program while the listener must fit the broadcaster's program.

It is satisfying for the descendant of a dissident refugee from Elizabeth I to present his credentials to Elizabeth II.

It won't make for a quiet life but it will make for an interesting paper vastly more significant because it is doing something only a daily paper can do.

It is the natural desire of each nation to use the other as an instrument of its own purposes and policies. By dint of our mutual dependence, your influence is amplified by our power. Our power is made more responsible and more effective by your influence.

With all the mass media concentrated in a few hands, the ancient faith in the competition of ideas in the free market seems like a hollow echo of a much simpler day.

Judgment is more than skill. It sets forth on intellectual seas beyond the shores of hard indisputable factual information.