black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

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

Those rules divide the world into Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, and allow journalists to pretend they have done their job if instead of reporting the truth behind the news, they merely give each side an opportunity to spin the news.
BILL MOYERS

Done Journalist Reporting Truth
There’s hardly a more bitter pill to take than when a President disappoints the people who most believed in him.
BILL MOYERS

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

Alive Beauty Expression
I report the assault on nature evidenced in coal mining that tears the tops off mountains and dumps them into rivers, sacrificing the health and lives of those in the river valleys to short-term profit.
BILL MOYERS

Out Rivers Sacrifice Work
Witness the coupling of news and entertainment. See everyday people cast overboard as the pirates and predators of Wall Street seized the ship of state. I didn’t drift; I moved left just by standing still.
BILL MOYERS

Moving Overboard Predator Standing
Charity depends on the vicissitudes of whim and personal wealth; justice depends on commitment instead of circumstance.
BILL MOYERS

Charity Circumstances Commitment Personal Wealth
Plutocracy too long tolerated leaves democracy on the auction block, subject to the highest bidder.
BILL MOYERS

Block Democracy Long
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
I really believe that coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.
BILL MOYERS

Believe Fate Spiritual
Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous.
BILL MOYERS

Creative Creativity Piercings
In fact, so much of life, as you know, is serendipitous. That’s why you better be prepared at any time for anything, because it may happen to you.
BILL MOYERS

Facts May Prepared
When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts.
BILL MOYERS

Always Blind Fact Ideology Politicians
America is the longest argument in the world.
BILL MOYERS

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

Civilization People Reciprocity
We see more and more of our Presidents and know less and less about what they do.
BILL MOYERS

Knows More President
Charity provides crumbs from the table; justice offers a place at the table.
BILL MOYERS

Charity Justice Tables
Charity is commendable; everyone should be charitable. But justice aims to create a social order in which, if individuals choose not to be charitable, people still don’t go hungry, unschooled or sick without care.
BILL MOYERS

Commitment Order Sick
Charity depends on the vicissitudes of whim and personal wealth; justice depends on commitment instead of circumstance. Faith-based charity provides crumbs from the table; faith-based justice offers a place at the table.
BILL MOYERS

Charity Commitment Justice
A people made morbidly obese in mind and spirit by the junk food of propaganda is less inclined to put up a fight, ask questions and be skeptical. And just as a democracy can die of too many lies, that kind of orthodoxy can kill us, too.
BILL MOYERS

Die Less People Questions Skeptical
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
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
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
I hear an almost inaudible but pervasive discontent with the price we pay for our current materialism. And I hear a fluttering of hope that there might be more to life than bread and circuses.
BILL MOYERS

might Pay Strength
Secrecy is the freedom tyrants dream of.
BILL MOYERS

Dream Freedom Tyrants
Our economy is a plantation run for the aristocrats – the CEOs, hedge funds, private equity firms – while the field hands are left with the scraps.
BILL MOYERS

Fields Hands Running
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

Jobs People Trying

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Bill Moyers Quotes