black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

We seem to prefer a comfortable lie to the uncomfortable truth. We punish those who point out reality, and reward those who provide us with the comfort of illusion. Reality is fearsome .. but experience tells us that more fearsome yet is evading it.

Bill Moyers

Beauty is an expression of that rapture of being alive.
BILL MOYERS

Alive Beauty Expression
War, except in self-defense, is a failure of moral imagination.
BILL MOYERS

Imagination Self War
Watching the debate this afternoon it was apparent they loved term limits in the House – as Brutus loved Caesar.
BILL MOYERS

Afternoon House Limit Term
We have got to nurture the spirit of independent journalism in this country, or we’ll not save capitalism from its own excesses, and we’ll not save democracy from its own inertia.
BILL MOYERS

Country Democracy Independent
The thing about war is that once it’s triggered, it is unyielding in its appetite. And the more it consumes and gorges, the more it wants.
BILL MOYERS

Gorges Unyielding War
There are honest journalists like there are honest politicians – they stay bought.
BILL MOYERS

Honest Journalist Politician
The most encouraging sign is that 71 percent of the public believe the system is profoundly corrupted by the power of money. Ninety-six percent of the people believe it’s “important” that we reduce the influence of money.
BILL MOYERS

Believe People Thinking
But what it meant in politics a century later, and still means today, is the freedom to accumulate wealth without social or democratic responsibilities and license to buy the political system right out from everyone else.
BILL MOYERS

Democratic Freedom Mean Political Social System Today
For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington.
BILL MOYERS

First Firsts Monopoly Time
Jon Stewart is a remarkable satirist and parodist in the vein of Mark Twain, because Jon Stewart understands what Mark Twain knew, which is that the truth goes down more easily in a democracy when it’s marinated in humor.
BILL MOYERS

Democracy Mark Veins
Hyperbole was to Lyndon Johnson what oxygen is to life.
BILL MOYERS

Country Hyperbole Johnson Oxygen
Our media and political system has turned into a mutual protection racket.
BILL MOYERS

Media Political Protection
What we need is what the ancient Israelites called hochma – the science of the heart…the capacity to see, to feel, and then to act as if the future depended on you. Believe me, it does.
BILL MOYERS

Believe Heart Need People
The struggle of ordinary people for a decent living, for security, is as old as the republic, but it’s taken on a new and urgent edge. Instead of shared prosperity our political system has now produced a winner-take-all economy.
BILL MOYERS

People Struggle Taken
When I was growing up, I never heard anyone pray, “Give me this day my daily bread.” It was always, “Give us this day our daily bread.” That stuck. We’re all in this together.
BILL MOYERS

Giving Grow Up Together
Capitalism is out of control, thanks in no small part to Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision which said that a corporation is a person, even though it doesn’t eat, drink, make love, sing, raise children or take care of aging parents.
BILL MOYERS

Children Long People

We seem to prefer a comfortable lie to the uncomfortable truth. We punish those who point out reality, and reward those who provide us with the comfort of illusion. Reality is fearsome .. but experience tells us that more fearsome yet is evading it.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

We seem to prefer a comfortable lie to the uncomfortable truth. We punish those who point out reality, and reward those who provide us with the comfort of illusion. Reality is fearsome .. but experience tells us that more fearsome yet is evading it.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Bill Moyers Quotes