It is only a short step from exaggerating what we can find in the world to exaggerating our power to remake the world. Daniel J. Boorstin More Quotes by Daniel J. Boorstin More Quotes From Daniel J. Boorstin The fog of information can drive out knowledge. Daniel J. Boorstin fog technology knowledge Nothing is really real unless it happens on television. Daniel J. Boorstin real reality television In the twentieth century our highest praise is to call the Bible 'The World's Best Seller.' And it has come to be more and more difficult to say whether we think it is a best seller because it is great, or vice versa. Daniel J. Boorstin vices bible thinking There was a time when the reader of an unexciting newspaper would remark, 'How dull is the world today!' Nowadays he says, 'What a dull newspaper!' Daniel J. Boorstin reading dull world History had been man's effort to accomodate himself to what he could not do. Amereican history in the 20th century would, more than ever before, test man's ability to accomodate himself to all the new things he could do. Daniel J. Boorstin effort men history An enamored amateur need not be a genius to stay out of the ruts he has never been trained in. Daniel J. Boorstin genius interesting needs The mind is a vagrant thing ... Thinking is not analogous to a person working in a laboratory who invents something on company time. Daniel J. Boorstin home writing book While knowledge is orderly and cumulative, information is random and miscellaneous. Daniel J. Boorstin miscellaneous information knowledge We read advertisements... to discover and enlarge our desires. Daniel J. Boorstin advertising business desire There is no known device for artistic contraception. Daniel J. Boorstin contraception devices artistic 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 advertising knowing desire Modern tourist guides have helped raised tourist expectations. And they have provided the natives- from Kaiser Wilhelm down to the villagers of Chichacestenango - with a detailed and itemized list of what is expected of them and when. These are the up-to-date scripts for actors on the tourists' stage. Daniel J. Boorstin tourism expectations travel Creators, makers of the new, can never become obsolete, for in the arts there is no correct answer. The story of discoverers could be told in simple chronological order, since the latest science replaces what went before. But the arts are another story- a story of infinite addition. We must find order in the random flexings of the imagination. Daniel J. Boorstin creativity simple art The cities of Italy are now deluged with droves of these creatures [tour groups], for they never separate, and you see them, forty in number, pouring along a street with their director - now in front, now at the rear, circling them like a sheep dog - and really the process is as like herding as may be. Daniel J. Boorstin cities dog sheep When the necessary eleven days were added, George Washington’s birthday, which fell on February 11, 1731, Old Style, became February 22, 1732, New Style. Daniel J. Boorstin eleven february style Jeffersonian isolationism expressed an essentially cosmopolitan spirit. The Jeffersonian was determined - even at the expense of separating himself from the rest of the globe, and even though he be charged with provincial selfishness - to preserve America as an uncontaminated laboratory. Daniel J. Boorstin selfishness spirit america More appealing than knowledge itself is the feeling of knowledge. Daniel J. Boorstin feelings knowledge The variety of minds served the economy of nature in many ways. The Creator, who designed the human brain for activity, had insured the restlessness of all minds by enabling no single one to envisage all the qualities of the creation. Since no one by himself could aspire to a serene knowledge of the whole truth, all men had been drawn into an active, exploratory and cooperative attitude. Daniel J. Boorstin brain attitude men 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 important simple america While the Jeffersonian did not flatly deny the Creator's power to perform miracles, he admired His refusal to do so. Daniel J. Boorstin refusal deny miracle
