Tom Brokaw Quotes

It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference.

It is, I believe, the greatest generation any society has ever produced.

The response to 'The Greatest Generation' and the books that followed has been one of the most satisfying experiences of my life.

David Brinkley was an icon of modern broadcast journalism, a brilliant writer who could say in a few words what the country needed to hear during times of crisis, tragedy and triumph.

Peter is an old friend. I'm heartbroken, but he's also a tough guy. I'm counting on him getting through this very difficult passage.

You are educated. Your certification is in your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of it as your ticket to change the world.

A big part of making your own luck is just charging out of the gate every morning.

While attendance at traditional churches has been declining for decades... the evangelical movement is growing, and it is changing the way America worships.

TV is a fickle business. I'm only good for the length of my contract.

It will do us little good to wire the world if we short circut our souls. There is no delete button for racism, poverty, or sectarian violence. No key stroke can ever clean the air, save a river, preserve a forest. This transformational new technology must be an extension of our hearts as well as of our mind.

there on the beaches of Normandy I began to reflect on the wonders of these ordinary people whose lives were laced with the markings of greatness.

In your pursuit of your passions, always be young. In your relationship with others, always be grown-up.

No text message will ever replace the first kiss.

Judy Miller is the most innocent person in this case. I really thought that was outrageous that she was jailed and we needed as journalists to draw a line in the sand in a strong but thoughtful way.

It's all storytelling, you know. That's what journalism is all about.

It is not enough to wire the world if you short-circuit the soul. Technology without heart is not enough.

Heroes are people who rise to the occasion and slip quietly away.

Bias, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder. Facts are your firewall against bias.

A common lament of the World War II generation is the absence today of personal responsibility

The WWII generation shares so many common values: duty, honor, country, personal responsibility and the marriage vow " For better or for worse--it was the last generation in which, broadly speaking, marriage was a commitment and divorce was not an option

I always think there are people looking not so much for information as for reassurance and reaffirmation of their views.

Think of it as your ticket to change the world.

Don't be afraid to do something unconventional, to take a chance, to risk something.

I believe you make your own luck. My motto is ‘It’s always a mistake not to go.’ So I jump on the airplane, try new things—sometimes I get in way over my head, but then I think, I’ll work my way out of this somehow. A big part of making your own luck is just charging out of the gate every morning…The thing I love about living in New York is that I never fail to get up in the morning and think, Something adventurous is going to happen today. The energy is operating at full throttle all the time. And if you want to be lucky you’ve got to go out and take advantage of it.

Life is filled with seasons and this is a different season.

Peter will have a place in this brotherhood forever.

If fishing is a religion, fly fishing is the high church.

It doesn't do any good to wire the world if we short circuit the soul.

I'm not going to sit on the porch of the old anchorman's home with a drool cup.

Don't overstate Fox News. It's still much smaller than the least of the network niches.

Speaking generally, people who are drawn to journalism are interested in what happens from the ground up less than they are from the top down.

It's so much easier to do it right than to do it wrong.

Saving Italy is an astonishing account of a little known American effort to save Italy’s vast store of priceless monuments and art during World War II. While American warriors were fighting the length of the country, other Americans were courageously working alongside to preserve the irreplaceable best of Italy’s culture. Read it and be proud of those who were on their own front lines of a cruel war.

We were not just competitors and colleagues, we were friends. We had a lot of opportunities to reflect on this in the last year. It was a competitive brotherhood.

When you run in places you visit, you encounter things you'd never see otherwise.

I think they are paying a lot more attention to news now, by the way, in part because of national-security issues. A lot of young people have friends or family in the military today.

There has never been a military operation remotely approaching the scale and the complexity of D-Day. It involved 176,000 troops, more than 12,000 airplanes, almost 10,000 ships, boats, landing craft, frigates, sloops, and other special combat vessels--all involved in a surprise attack on the heavily fortified north coast of France, to secure a beachhead in the heart of enemy-held territory so that the march to Germany and victory could begin. It was daring, risky, confusing, bloody, and ultimately glorious [p.25]

What I think is highly inappropriate is what's going on across the Internet, a kind of political jihad against Dan Rather and CBS News that's quite outrageous.

It will do us little good to wire the world if we limit our vision. It will do us little good to wire the world if we short circuit our souls.

One of the things that we don't want to do is to destroy the infrastructure of Iraq, because in a few days we're going to own that country.

Votes are something that you earn.

Forty years after the greatest scandal of the American presidency, Elizabeth Drew's account in Washington Journal remains fresh and riveting, instructive and evocative. Her afterword on Nixon's post-Watergate life is equally compelling.

Our obligation at the network is where do we fit into that and how can we best capitalize on that to make sure that our piece of that remains important to those young people.

Sackcloth and kelp soup are not required, but the Buddhist reminder of the need to live lightly on the earth is a helpful guide to the daily habits and needs of us all.

There is no delete button for bigotry.

The meaningful role of the father of the bride was played out long before the church music began. It stretched across those years of infancy and puberty, adolescence and young adulthood. That's when she needs you at her side.

It's not the questions that get us in trouble - it's the answers.

I remain the luckiest guy I know.

What I did was experiment with a little marijuana like a lot of other people and walked away...

I like Washington a great deal. I enjoyed living there. But then I've enjoyed living almost everywhere I've ever been. I just find that it's a different menu wherever you go.