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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

Conservatism is less a set of ideas than it is a pathological distemper, a militant anger over the fact that the universe is not closed and life is not static.
BILL MOYERS

Facts Ideas Life Static
If the watchdog doesn’t bark, how do you know there’s a burglar in the basement? And the press is supposed to be a watchdog.
BILL MOYERS

Bark Basements Supposed
Professionals give advice; pilgrims share wisdom.
BILL MOYERS

Advice Giving Inspirational
I take “We, the People” seriously because I don’t know how we build a civilization without reciprocity.
BILL MOYERS

Civilization People Reciprocity
Here is the crisis of the times as I see it: We talk about problems, issues, policies, but we don’t talk about what democracy means – what it bestows on us.
BILL MOYERS

Issues Mean Revolutionary Ideas
Lyndon Johnson was thirteen of the most interesting and difficult men I ever met. He could be as couth as he was uncouth, as magnanimous as malicious, at times proud and sensitive, at times paranoid and darkly uneasy with himself. Freud would have had a field day with him.
BILL MOYERS

Fields Interesting Men
Our media and political system has turned into a mutual protection racket.
BILL MOYERS

Media Political Protection
Hyperbole was to Lyndon Johnson what oxygen is to life.
BILL MOYERS

Country Hyperbole Johnson Oxygen
We see more and more of our Presidents and know less and less about what they do.
BILL MOYERS

Knows More President
I’m the front man, I’m the man on camera, but there’s a whole team beyond me.
BILL MOYERS

Camera Men Team
Democracy only works when we claim it as our own.
BILL MOYERS

Allow Claims Democracy People
You do it because there’s a story to be told. I can tell you that the job of trying to tell the truth about people whose job it is to hide the truth is about as complicated and difficult as trying to hide it in the first place.
BILL MOYERS

Complicated Job People Told Truth Trying
I can’t speak for a war that I believe is immoral.
BILL MOYERS

Believe Speak War
I was not a public – I was not a thinker. I was a doer.
BILL MOYERS

Doers Public Thinkers
Having lost faith in all else, zealots have nothing left but a holy cause to please a warrior God. They win if we become holy warriors, too; if we kill the innocent as they do; strike first at those who had not struck us.
BILL MOYERS

Thinking Warrior Winning
The rich today are richer, there are more of them, they have round-the-clock propaganda factories in Rupert Murdoch’s empire and rightwing talk radio, and corporate media have their back.
BILL MOYERS

Empires Media Radio

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