The institutional scene in which American man has developed has lacked that accumulation from intervening stages which has been so dominant a feature of the European landscape. Daniel J. Boorstin More Quotes by Daniel J. Boorstin More Quotes From Daniel J. Boorstin The world of crime is a last refuge of the authentic, uncorrupted, spontaneous event. Daniel J. Boorstin eventslastsworld The fog of information can drive out knowledge. Daniel J. Boorstin fogtechnologyknowledge Nothing is really real unless it happens on television. Daniel J. Boorstin realrealitytelevision 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 vicesbiblethinking 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 readingdullworld 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 effortmenhistory An enamored amateur need not be a genius to stay out of the ruts he has never been trained in. Daniel J. Boorstin geniusinterestingneeds 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 homewritingbook While knowledge is orderly and cumulative, information is random and miscellaneous. Daniel J. Boorstin miscellaneousinformationknowledge We read advertisements... to discover and enlarge our desires. Daniel J. Boorstin advertisingbusinessdesire There is no known device for artistic contraception. Daniel J. Boorstin contraceptiondevicesartistic 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 advertisingknowingdesire 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 tourismexpectationstravel 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 creativitysimpleart 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 citiesdogsheep 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 elevenfebruarystyle 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 selfishnessspiritamerica More appealing than knowledge itself is the feeling of knowledge. Daniel J. Boorstin feelingsknowledge 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 brainattitudemen 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 importantsimpleamerica
