David Gergen Quotes

I don't guess. I think. I ponder. I deduce. Then I decide. But I never guess.

When widely followed public figures feel free to say anything, without any fact-checking, it becomes impossible for a democracy to think intelligently about big issues.

I think Barack Obama is gonna go down as the worst president ever, frankly. I used to say that about Jimmy Carter but I think he's gonna be surpassed.

I think the most important thing for the public and the press is to just listen to what Donald Trump says and follow up and ask questions about what appear to be either contradictory or uninformed or outright wacky ideas.

Intelligent thinking means an increment of freedom in action-an emancipation from chance and fatality. 'Thought' represents the suggestion of a way of response that is different from that which would have been followed if intelligent observation had not effected an inference as to the future.

We have an expression in New York City government - "In God we trust, but for everyone else, bring data." It's so easy to pick up a sound byte and say, "Oh, yeah, yeah, I believe that," without really thinking.

The Republican Party has bent over backwards not even criticizing Democrats in hopes that people wouldn't think they're what the Democrats say they are, while the Democrats go out and behave that way times ten all the time every day and never get called on it.

Part of knowing how to think is knowing how the laws of nature shape the world around us. Without that knowledge, without that capacity to think, you can easily become a victim of people who seek to take advantage of you.

I intend to judge things for myself; to judge wrongly, I think, is more honorable than not to judge at all.

I don't like debates anyway. I have never debated anyone, I think they're a very masculine form - like an intellectual prizefight. They let you know who the better debater is but they don't really tell you about the issue. It's all heat, but no light.

I think that it's important for people to read philosophy and literature is not because I think everyone should be a well-rounded human being, but because it will help you think better about what you are doing.

I don't know the facts surrounding Andrew Jarecki's work. I think it's a triumph of television. But it does raise troubling issues that I think we as a documentary community, you know, need to address.

When you buy a used car, you kick the tires, you look at the odometer, you open up the hood. If you do not feel yourself an expert in automobile engines, you bring a friend who is. And you do this with something as unimportant as an automobile. But on the issues of the transcendent, of ethics, of morals, of the origins of the world, of the nature of human beings, on those issues should we not insist upon at least equally skeptical scrutiny?

Whenever I think about an issue, I always argue the opposite side of it. So, when I ultimately decide on a course of action, I've already been through all the conceivable scenarios, and I'm going to go for it.

I can think of no better reason to vote against Obama than the prospect of an administration where any criticism of the President is treated as racism.

I think it is terribly important to have opinions, and to think. We live in a world of action without thought.

When Nancy Reagan was presented with people who she really felt like weren't going to judge her, there was such a floodgate of affection and warmth and physical affection that, most of the time, was kept at bay because, "Oh, someone's going to say something." I think that because of so many things that happened to her in her childhood, but also in the press.

I think Nelly [Ternan] actually has something very conservative about her, and she's very judgmental of (this other character's) situation, and can see that's about to happen to herself. So she judges it even more harshly [because] it's what she fears becoming.

I think we have to choose, what are the issues that really matter? We have to trust that.

The polls undoubtedly help to decide what people think, but their most important long-term influence may be on how people think. The interrogative process is very distinctly weighted against the asking of an intelligent question or the recording of a thoughtful answer.

My job as a reporter, my job as a senior White House correspondent for CNN, is to report the news, but also to highlight and put a microscope on episodes of presidential hypocrisy. And you know, if Donald Trump was going to come after us out on the campaign trail, and as president of the United States through his tweets, I think we are well within our rights to defend ourselves, and also provide that kind of critical coverage to the American people.

One of the problems with watching TV is that you've got a fairly low level of language operating all the time. Quite a small vocabulary and really no conceptual or abstract thinking. That's an issue. If you've got a wide vocabulary, you can learn. The complexities of grammar, in themselves, force you to think about time in a particular way. Force you to widen your outlook on the world.

You should never form judgments from front page headlines. As with a contract, the fine print on the inside pages should be carefully studied.

You cannot avoid making judgements but you can become more conscious of the way in which you make them. This is critically important because once we judge someone or something we tend to stop thinking about them or it.

I went as an observer, not a participant, for I do not think that I ever spoke. I wanted to understand the issues under discussion, evaluate the arguments, see the calibre of the men involved.