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Home
Authors
Daniel J. Boorstin
American
Historian
About the author
I've learned any fool can write a bad ad, but it takes a real genius to keep his hands off a good one.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Fool
#Genius
A best-seller was a book which somehow sold well because it was selling well.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Selling
A sign of celebrity is that his name is often worth more than his services.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Celebrity
#Worth
#Name
A wonderful thing about a book, in contrast to a computer screen, is that you can take it to bed with you.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Computer
#Bed
#Contrast
An image is not simply a trademark, a design, a slogan or an easily remembered picture. It is a studiously crafted personality profile of an individual, institution, corporation, product or service.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Personality
#Service
#Design
As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism. The beloved Echo of our ancestors, the virgin America, has been abandoned. We have fallen in love with our own image, with images of our making, which turn out to be images of ourselves.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Now
#Love
#America
#Nation
#Echo
As you make your bed, so you must lie in it.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Lie
#Bed
Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Education
#Learning
Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Thought
#Freedom
#Opportunity
We suffer primarily not from our vices or our weaknesses, but from our illusions. We are haunted, not by reality, but by those images we have put in their place.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Reality
#Vices
I write to discover what I think. After all, the bars aren't open that early.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Open
Knowledge is not simply another commodity. On the contrary. Knowledge is never used up. It increases by diffusion and grows by dispersion.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Knowledge
Nothing is really real unless it happens on television.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Nothing
#Television
The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes "sight-seeing."
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#People
#Experience
#Adventure
We read advertisements... to discover and enlarge our desires. We are always ready - even eager - to discover, from the announcement of a new product, what we have all along wanted without really knowing it.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
We need not be theologians to see that we have shifted responsibility for making the world interesting from God to the newspaperman.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#God
#World
#Responsibility
Human models are more vivid and more persuasive than explicit moral commands.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
The world of crime is a last refuge of the authentic, uncorrupted, spontaneous event.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#World
#Crime
Reading is like the sex act - done privately, and often in bed.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Reading
#Act
#Bed
#Sex
The most important American addition to the World Experience was the simple surprising fact of America. We have helped prepare mankind for all its later surprises.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#World
#American
#Experience
#Surprises
#America
#Fact
#Mankind
The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Ignorance
#Knowledge
#Illusion
#Discovery
The force of the advertising word and image dwarfs the power of other literature in the 20th century.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Power
#Word
#Literature
#Force
#Advertising
The courage to imagine the otherwise is our greatest resource, adding color and suspense to all our life.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Life
#Courage
#Suspense
The celebrity is a person who is known for his well-knownness.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Celebrity
Technology is so much fun but we can drown in our technology. The fog of information can drive out knowledge.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Fun
#Technology
#Information
#Knowledge
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Public
#Greatness
Time makes heroes but dissolves celebrities.
Daniel J. Boorstin,
American
Historian
#Time
#Heroes