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History is a tragedy, not a morality tale.

I. F. Stone

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I. F. Stone
Age: 106 †
Born: 1907
Born: December 24
Died: 2014
Died: November 1
Classical Scholar
Journalist
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Isidor Feinstein Stone
Izzy Stone
Melodrama
Tale
Tales
Tragedy
Morality
History

More quotes by I. F. Stone

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You've really got to wear a chastity belt in Washington to preserve your journalistic virginity. Once the secretary of state invites you to lunch and asks your opinion, you're sunk.
I. F. Stone
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Every time we are confronted with a new revolution we take to the opium pipes of our own propaganda.
I. F. Stone
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The difference between burlesque and the newspapers is that the former never pretended to be performing a public service by exposure.
I. F. Stone
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All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out.
I. F. Stone
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If you live long enough, you get accused of things you never did and praised for virtues you never had.
I. F. Stone
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You have to take the long view. First, when Moses came down from Mt. Sinai, man has already progressed to the point where a commandment against cannibalism was no longer necessary. And, second, it's like pissing on a boulder. For the first few thousand years, you don't see any effect. But after that, you start to see a definite impact.
I. F. Stone
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I sought in political reporting what Galsworthy in another context had called the significant trifle - the bit of dialogue, the overlooked fact, the buried observation which illuminated the realities of the situation.
I. F. Stone
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The arms race is based on an optimistic view of technology and a pessimistic view of man. It assumes there is no limit to the ingenuity of science and no limit to the deviltry of human beings.
I. F. Stone
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If you expect to see the final results of your work, you simply have not asked a big enough question.
I. F. Stone
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I thought I might teach philosophy but the atmosphere of a college faculty repelled me the few islands of greatness seemed to be washed by seas of pettiness and mediocrity.
I. F. Stone
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Rich people march on Washington every day.
I. F. Stone
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A certain moral imbecility marks all ethnocentric movements.
I. F. Stone
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The only thing God didn't do to Job was give him a computer.
I. F. Stone
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The fault I find with most American newspapers is not the absence of dissent. it is the absence of news. With a dozen or so honorable exceptions, most American newspapers carry very little news. Their main concern is advertising.
I. F. Stone
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Every emancipation has in it the seeds of a new slavery, and every truth easily becomes a lie.
I. F. Stone
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When war comes, reason is regarded as treason.
I. F. Stone
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If God, as some now say, is dead, He no doubt died of trying to find an equitable solution to the Arab-Jewish problem.
I. F. Stone
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When you're young, you get blamed for crimes that you didn't commit. When you are old, you get credit for virtues that you never had. I guess it all evens out in the end.
I. F. Stone