Daniel J. Boorstin

destruction is easy for humans but creation is too difficult.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

The fog of information can drive out knowledge.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

“There is no cure for illusion. There is only the opportunity for discovery.”

— Daniel J. Boorstin

The hero created himself; the celebrity is created by the media.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire PR officers.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

A sign of celebrity is that his name is often worth more than his services.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”

— Daniel J. Boorstin

A wonderful thing about a book, in contrast to a computer screen, is that you can take it to bed with you.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

The computer can help us find what we know is there. But the book remains our symbol and our resource for the…

— Daniel J. Boorstin

Knowledge is not simply another commodity. On the contrary. Knowledge is never used up. It increases by diffusion and grows by dispersion.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

The history of Western science confirms the aphorism that the great menace to progress is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

A pseudo-event ... comes about because someone has planned it, planted, or incited it. Typically, it is not a train wreck or…

— Daniel J. Boorstin

In the twentieth century our highest praise is to call the Bible 'The World's Best Seller.' And it has come to be…

— Daniel J. Boorstin

Each living art object, taken out of its native habitat so we can conveniently gaze at it, is like an animal in…

— Daniel J. Boorstin

The Christian test was a willingness to believe in the one Jesus Christ and His Message of salvation. What was demanded was…

— Daniel J. Boorstin

American civilization, from its beginnings, had combined a dogmatic confidence in the future with a naive puzzlement over what the future might…

— Daniel J. Boorstin

Creators, makers of the new, can never become obsolete, for in the arts there is no correct answer. The story of discoverers…

— Daniel J. Boorstin

In fast-moving, progress-conscious America, the consumer expects to be dizzied by progress. If he could completely understand advertising jargon he would be…

— Daniel J. Boorstin

While the focus in the landscape of Old World cities was commonly government structures, churches, or the residences of rulers, the landscape…

— Daniel J. Boorstin

Jeffersonian isolationism expressed an essentially cosmopolitan spirit. The Jeffersonian was determined - even at the expense of separating himself from the rest…

— Daniel J. Boorstin

Beware of charisma . . . Representative Men; was Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1850 phrase for the great men in a democracy .…

— Daniel J. Boorstin

The cities of Italy are now deluged with droves of these creatures [tour groups], for they never separate, and you see them,…

— Daniel J. Boorstin

Modern tourist guides have helped raised tourist expectations. And they have provided the natives- from Kaiser Wilhelm down to the villagers of…

— Daniel J. Boorstin

Jefferson refused to pin his hopes on the occasional success of honest and unambitious men; on the contrary, the great danger was…

— Daniel J. Boorstin

Technology is so much fun but we can drown in our technology. The fog of information can drive out knowledge.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

[The Library of Congress] is a multimedia encyclopedia. These are the tentacles of a nation.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

Planning for the future without a sense of history is like planting cut flowers.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

We must abandon the prevalent belief in the superior wisdom of the ignorant.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

More appealing than knowledge itself is the feeling of knowledge.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

I write to discover what I think. After all, the bars aren't open that early.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

The force of the advertising word and image dwarfs the power of other literature in the 20th century.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

It is very unlikely that the computer will displace the books, except in areas where we need information speedily.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

I've learned any fool can write a bad ad, but it takes a real genius to keep his hands off a good…

— Daniel J. Boorstin

Where ruts have not yet been worn, it requires less effort to stay out of them.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

“There is no cure for illusions. There is only the opportunity for discovery.”

— Daniel J. Boorstin

The world of crime is a last refuge of the authentic, uncorrupted, spontaneous event.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

Any government which made the welfare of men depend on the character of their governors was an illusion.

— Daniel J. Boorstin

The most promising words ever written on the maps of human knowledge are terra incognita, unknown territory.

— Daniel J. Boorstin