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Any government which made the welfare of men depend on the character of their governors was an illusion.

Daniel J. Boorstin

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Daniel J. Boorstin
Age: 89 †
Born: 1914
Born: October 1
Died: 2004
Died: February 28
Biographer
Historian
Lawyer
Librarian
Philosopher
Sociologist
Writer
Atlanta
Georgia
Men
Governors
Depend
Welfare
Illusion
Depends
Character
Government
Made

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Throught human history, illusions of knowledge, not ignorance, have proven to be the principal obstacles to discovery
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Until now when we have started to talk about the uniqueness of America we have almost always ended by comparing ourselves to Europe. Toward her we have felt all the attraction and repulsions of Oedipus
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God is the celebrity author of the world's best seller. We have made god into the biggest celebrity of all, to contain our own emptiness.
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A wonderful thing about a book, in contrast to a computer screen, is that you can take it to bed with you.
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The force of the advertising word and image dwarfs the power of other literature in the 20th century.
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Creators, makers of the new, can never become obsolete, for in the arts there is no correct answer. The story of discoverers could be told in simple chronological order, since the latest science replaces what went before. But the arts are another story- a story of infinite addition. We must find order in the random flexings of the imagination.
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The American experience stirred mankind from discovery to exploration. From the cautious quest for what they knew (or thought they knew) was out there, into an enthusiastic reaching to the unknown. These are two substantially different kinds of human enterprise.
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As you make your bed, so you must lie in it.
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The celebrity is a person who is known for his well-knownness.
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There was a time when the reader of an unexciting newspaper would remark, 'How dull is the world today!' Nowadays he says, 'What a dull newspaper!'
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Formerly, a public man needed a private secretary for a barrier between himself and the public. Nowadays he has a press secretary, to keep him properly in the public eye.
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More appealing than knowledge itself is the feeling of knowledge.
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Technology is so much fun but we can drown in our technology. The fog of information can drive out knowledge.
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Human models are more vivid and more persuasive than explicit moral commands.
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The hero created himself the celebrity is created by the media.
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Nothing is really real unless it happens on television.
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The most promising words ever written on the maps of human knowledge are terra incognita, unknown territory.
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In the twentieth century our highest praise is to call the Bible 'The World's Best Seller.' And it has come to be more and more difficult to say whether we think it is a best seller because it is great, or vice versa.
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In the small town each citizen had done something in his own way to build the community. The town booster had a vision of the future which he tried to fulfill. The suburb dweller by contrast started with the future
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I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress. No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever.
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