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Bill Downs Quotes
1914–1978
William Randall Downs, Jr. (August 17, 1914 – May 3, 1978) was a Kansas City-born American broadcast journalist for CBS Radio and later ABC. He was best known for his work with Edward R.
Random Bill Downs quote
12 quotes
The fault of democracy everywhere, including the United States of America, is that too few people make use of it.
This seems to me to be more a day for a searching of the human soul perhaps than for any kind of scientific celebration.
Just think! If we survive them, these will be the good old days!
Perhaps the greatest good that will emerge from this Far Eastern crisis is an awareness that freedom-loving men of all races and all nations will have proved that they can and must work and fight together if their freedom is to survive.
Okay, Ed, now I've gotten the ice. When are you gonna stand up to McCarthy?
We've lost, or appear to be losing, the international title as the greatest revolutionary power in the world; and we seem to be losing it to a revolutionary form of totalitarianism. Maybe the American revolution is over.
Years of Crisis (1955)
A single, isolated battle that ranks in magnificence and courage with Guam, Tarawa, Omaha Beach. A story that should be told to the blowing of bugles and the beating of drums for the men whose bravery made the capture of this crossing over the Waal possible.
At least I can shout to the world this--I'm my own midget. The mistakes will be my mistakes--the failures will have my fiat--the successes, if any or none, will not be subject to people who worry about thick lenses, long noses, or advertising agency or affiliate bias.
Describing his frustration with his treatment by the new CBS management (1962)
Go back, go back, you silly bastards. This ain't our kind of war. This one is for the birds.
Nations don't make twelve-inch guns to shoot quail. They don't drop bombs in mid-Pacific lagoons to kill fish. War is inevitable until the time comes when nations give up their sovereign right to make war and learn to settle their problems peacefully.
CBS News Mid-Century Roundup (1950)
Among other things, we are supposed to spot the toes of clay splaying out from under the pearl-gray spats, or the cloven hoof encased in the jackboot, before anyone else. Cynicism also is the touchstone of a reporter's alchemy through which he hopes to discover that nonexistent load called "objectivity." For as a set of philosophers, the only true objective reporter is the dead one.
This I Believe (1951)
I believe that the only protection that man has against himself is the trust and confidence of his friends. For example, my cynicism tells me that the man who makes a career of "people-hunting" or "people-hating" is a man who desperately fears being chased or not loved.
This I Believe (1951)
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