Brooke Gladstone · 172 pages
Rating: (2.4K votes)
“Objectivity works to repel the attacks of critics, like a kind of ethical pepper spray.”
“There's a long-standing debate in the media biz over whether the news outlets should give the public what it wants, or what it needs. This debate presupposes that media execs actually know what it wants or needs. And that there actually is a unitary "public.”
“Speech itself, inevitable and unrelenting is the wind. It can dance like a zephyr. It can roar or shriek or wail. But it cant be stopped. Everything we hate about the media today was present at its creation; its corrupt or craven practitioners, its easy manipulation by the powerful, its capacity for propagating lies, its penchant for amplifying rage.
Also present was everything we admire: factual information, penetrating analysis, probing investigation, truth spoken to power. Same as it ever was.”
“Humans run on emotion, assumption and impulse. We cant function on logic alone. But emotion assumption and impulse also allow us to weave cozy cocoons of unexamined prejudice and received wisdom. They shield us from the pain of unwelcome information.”
“Suppose an individual believes something with his whole heart; suppose further that he has taken irrevocable actions because of it. Finally suppose he is presented with evidence, unequivocal and undeniable evidence that his belief is wrong. What will happen? The individual will frequently emerge not only unshaken but even more convinced of the truth of his beliefs than ever before. Indeed he may even show a new fervor for converting other people to his view.”
“The big threat of photoshopification is not that we will believe documents and photos are fake. Its that we'll find it easier to disbelieve documents and photos that are real, when its convenient.”
“Many focus on what they perceive as a loss of some vital aspect of our humanity. To me, the sessence of being human is not in our limitations. It is our ability to reach beyond our limitations. We did not stay on the ground. We did not even stay on the planet. And we are already not settling for the limitations of our biology.”
“Worrying about offending people drags us back to the lowest common denominator
Our enemies are not the digital bits that dance across our screens but the neural impulses that animate our lizard brains”
“You do realize that you are a termite. You are eating through my soul.”
“Itterasshai.
Go and come back safely.”
“Who can really say how decisions are made, how emotions change, how ideas arise? We talk about inspiration; about a bolt of lightnng from a clear sky, but perhaps everything is just as simple and just as infinitely complex as the processes that make a particular leaf fall at a particularmoment. That point has been reached, that's all. It has to happen, and it does happen.”
“هناك شيئان يقولهما الناس عن ألف ليلة وليلة. الأول هو أنه لم يستطع أحد على الإطلاق أن يقرأ الكتاب من البداية إلى النهاية، والشيء الثاني هو أن أي أحد يقرأه منذ البداية إلى النهاية لا بد أن يموت.
ومن المؤكد أن القارئ المحترس الذي يرى أن هذين التحذيرين يتناسبان معاً سوف يرغب في قراءته بحذر. ولكن لا سبب يدعو للخوف، لأننا جميعاً سوف نموت في يوم من الأيام، سواء قرأنا ألف ليلة وليلة أم لم نقرأها.”
“What is it about you Keira, that has a man wanting to fuck you senseless into submission one minute and strangle the breath from your body the next?”
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