President Carter famously said the hostages were the first thing he thought about in the morning and the last thing he thought about at night. It was a downright foolish thing to say, because it made the people holding the hostages realize that they had an awful lot of influence over the United States.

Ted Koppel

Categorized in : People Night Morning

Pessimists calculate the odds. Optimists believe they can overcom... by Ted Koppel

Pessimists calculate the odds. Optimists believe they can overcome them.

odds overcoming believe

Our society finds truth too strong a medicine to digest undiluted. In its purest form, truth is not a polite tap on the shoulder; it is a howling reproach.

medicine our-society strong

Set your sights beyond what you can see. There is true majesty in the concept of an unseen power which can neither be measured nor weighed.

goal sight motivational

It becomes increasingly easy, as you get older, to drown in nosta... by Ted Koppel

It becomes increasingly easy, as you get older, to drown in nostalgia.

scrapbooking nostalgia easy

There's harmony and inner peace to be found in following a moral compass that points in the same direction regardless of fashion or trend.

trends fashion peace

Aspire to decency. Practice civility toward one another. Admire and emulate ethical behavior wherever you find it. Apply a rigid standard of morality to your lives; and if, periodically, you fail as you surely will adjust your lives, not the standards.

morality practice inspiring

Beginning, perhaps, from the reasonable perspective that absolute objectivity is unattainable, Fox News and MSNBC no longer even attempt it. They show us the world not as it is, but as partisans (and loyal viewers) at either end of the political spectrum would like it to be. This is to journalism what Bernie Madoff was to investment: He told his customers what they wanted to hear, and by the time they learned the truth, their money was gone.

perspective objectivity political

You can almost measure where you are in life by the degree to which you have begun looking back rather than ahead.

where-you-are-in-life where-you-are degrees

To face despair and not give in to it, that's courage. by Ted Koppel

To face despair and not give in to it, that's courage.

bravery courage giving

What Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai were not the Ten Suggestions, they are Commandments. Are, not were.

sinai moses suggestions

People shouldn't expect the mass media to do investigative stories. That job belongs to the 'fringe' media.

media jobs people

If we're able to identify our own ignorance, we can identify someone else's expertise. We learn how to listen to each other. And that is the foundation of human understanding.

understanding ignorance teamwork

Well, Keith Alexander, the former director of the NSA wants to say every company in the United States falls under one of two categories, those that have been hacked and those that don't yet know it.

Journalism has become a sort of competitive screeching: what is trivial but noisy and immediate takes precedence over important matters that develop over time.

important matter inspirational

Donald Trump is, in effect, the Recruiter-in-Chief for ISIS. ISIS wants nothing more right now than to have the world divided into Judeo-Christian on one side and the Islamic world on the other. That's exactly what Trump is doing for them. I think it's time we start with thinking about what ISIS wants and then not doing it.

islamic christian thinking

There is something very very special, universal and easily identifiable among all Jews; it is beyond territory, it is something we all have in common

territory special common

In the days of Caesar, kings had fools and jesters. Now network p... by Ted Koppel

In the days of Caesar, kings had fools and jesters. Now network presidents have anchormen.

anchorman president kings

Every single of us is going to be saying, "Thank God, finally, an interesting convention." But you're right about all those people out there. All the people who have been energized by the Trump campaign are going to be very, very angry folk if they think that Trump is not well treated.

people interesting thinking

The responsibility that I feel is to do as good a job as a journa... by Ted Koppel

The responsibility that I feel is to do as good a job as a journalist as I can possibly do.

journalist responsibility jobs

And there will continue to be a specific threat, and there will continue to be terrorism, as there has been for as long as human history exists.

threat terrorism long