People, if given the choice between anarchy and dictatorship, will always choose dictatorship because anarchy is the worst dictatorship of all.
Eric SevareidChristmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves.
Eric SevareidTenacity is a pretty fair substitute for bravery, and the best form of tenacity I know is expressed in a Danish fur trapper's principle: "The next mile is the only one a person really has to make."
Eric SevareidThe best way to get thrown out of the columnists' club is to be uncertain about anything whatsoever on this earth.
Eric SevareidWith breathtaking rapidity, we are destroying all that was lovely to look at and turning America into a prison house of the spirit. The affluent society, with relentless single-minded energy, is turning our cities, most of suburbia and most of our roadways into the most affluent slum on earth.
Eric SevareidIt is perfectly clear that people, given no alternative, will choose tyranny over anarchy, because anarchy is the worst tyranny of all... The special nature of liberties is that they can be defended only as long as we still have them. So the very first signs of their erosion must be resisted, whether the issue be domestic surveillance by the Army, so-called preventive detention, or the freedom of corporate television, or that of a campus newspaper.
Eric SevareidBetter to trust the man who is frequently in error than the one who is never in doubt.
Eric SevareidThe most distinguished hallmark of the American society is and always has been change.
Eric SevareidI have never quite grasped the worry about the power of the press. After all, it speaks with a thousand voices, in constant dissonance.
Eric SevareidThe biggest big business in America is not steel, automobiles, or television. It is the manufacture, refinement and distribution of anxiety.
Eric SevareidNext to power without honor, the most dangerous thing in the world is power without humor.
Eric SevareidThe bigger the information media, the less courage and freedom they follow. Bigness means weakness.
Eric SevareidWords themselves become beings, sentences becomenatural vegetation to be guided by the gardener's hands.
Eric SevareidThere are only two kinds of people in the world, suckers and people that can be had. Everyone can be had, but a sucker will always bet you $50 that he can't be had. Maybe magicians are around to remind us we can all be had, so we don't become suckers.
Eric SevareidThe five happiest people I have ever met all had this strange little quirk of referring to their jobs as a 'calling.'
Eric SevareidIt is only people with a sense of personal responsibility who can help others. It is only people with a sense of personal responsibility who can be helped in a lasting way.
Eric SevareidYou can't know who you are, as a nation or a people, unless you know where you've been.
Eric Sevareid