John Grierson

We believe that the materials and the stories taken from the raw can be finer (more real in the philosophic sense) than…

— John Grierson

Art is not a mirror but a hammer.

— John Grierson

Political conflicts distort and disturb a people's sense of distinction between matters of importance and matters of urgency. What is vital is…

— John Grierson

It is often more important to act than to understand... there are times... when two conflicting opinions, though one happens to be…

— John Grierson

Beware the ends of the earth and the exotic: the drama is on your doorstep wherever the slums; are, wherever there is…

— John Grierson

The very effect of the education they were given... was to make men think; and, thinking, they became less and less satisfied…

— John Grierson

Some of us learned in a school of philosophy which taught that all was for the common good and nothing for oneself…

— John Grierson

My personal view is that such total planning by the state is an absolute good and not simply a relative good... I…

— John Grierson

In fact, the individual outlook becomes less and less valuable and more and more harmful unless it is transmitted into the corporate…

— John Grierson

For three hundred years we have had our focus on the individual. We have distinguished him from the objective world as the…

— John Grierson

The cultivation of sensibility on purely personal lines may, in fact, be the very worst training for a world where only the…

— John Grierson

I look on cinema as a pulpit, and use it as a propagandist.

— John Grierson

Such manifestations I account as representing the creative leadership of the new forces of thought and appreciation which attend changes in technological…

— John Grierson

“Art Is Not A Mirror - It Is A Hammer.”

— John Grierson

The life of the village became more and more affected by strikes and lock-outs.

— John Grierson

And, consequently, the art of propaganda or public information becomes one of the most powerful forms of directive statesmanship.

— John Grierson

In documentary we deal with the actual, and in one sense with the real. But the really real, if I may use…

— John Grierson

The oblique paradox of propaganda is that the lie in the throat becomes, by repetition, the truth in the heart.

— John Grierson

When quick results are imperative, the manipulation of the masses through symbols may be the only quick way of having a critical…

— John Grierson

We have built our State on the freedom of personal adventure.

— John Grierson

We believe that the cinema's capacity for getting around, for observing and selecting from life itself can be exploited in a new…

— John Grierson

My view... would be that we are entering upon a new and interim society which is neither capitalist nor socialist, but in…

— John Grierson