Norman Lear Quotes

No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.

I think actually the American people are pretty realistic. In polls they ask what do you think of the president's policies. Is he on the right track? They say yes. They ask them how long will it take for the economy to recover. And people are saying two years.

The public's not stupid.

No one in this world, so far as I know - and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me - has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.

The public are not stupid.

I think people got more common sense than people give 'em credit for.

I get the Playboy thing a lot. People assume I go out with bimbos. I couldn't go out with bimbos if I tried! I scare them off! The women that like me are smart. So I go to the Playboy Mansion four or five times a year, but people think I go all the time.

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.

As H.L. Mencken once said, 'nobody ever when broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.' Our show [All in the Family] countered that witticism. I think he was wrong.

Reputation matters so much only because people so seldom think for themselves.

I, 100 percent don't think that's where the American people at, because when there's viral pictures as a baby is in Aleppo with, you know, rubble all over them going viral, and then there are celebrities tweeting why haven't we done nothing about this? And like, oh, there are actually many people for years who've been trying to send aid then and this president won't let us.

The polls demonstrate that 50 percent of Americans who get their news from TV think Saddam Hussein was behind the Twin Towers attack. Man, have they got ways for getting half-truths out right away now, thanks to TV! I think TV is a calamity in a democracy.

When years from now people look back on today, they will think the same thing they already do but with more reasons for it.

The American people already know that Bill Clinton is a bad boy, a naughty boy. I'm going to speak out for the citizens of my state, who in the majority think that Bill Clinton is probably even a nasty, bad, naughty boy.

What do you imagine the American people would think of me if I wasted my time going to the ball game?

What happened in the following years? Well, I think that among the educated classes it stayed the same. You talk about humanitarian intervention, it's like Vietnam was a humanitarian intervention. Among the public, it's quite different.

The idea of what the public will think prevents the public from ever thinking at all, and acts as a spell on the exercise of private judgment.

The public regards lawyers with great distrust. They think lawyers are smarter than the average guy but use their intelligence deviously. Well, they're wrong. Usually they are not smarter.

If you were president 50 years ago, the tragedy in Syria might not even penetrate what the American people were thinking about on a day to day basis. Today, they're seeing vivid images of a child in the aftermath of a bombing.

I've had very little negative pushback. I think people in the Senate know that I have believed, for a number of years, and have been outspoken that we need to listen to what the American people are telling us, and we need to focus more on the well-being of people who make lower wages, $50,000 and below.

I think if you look at almost every year under every president over the last, I don't know, 20, 30 years, you're going to be hard-pressed to find a year in which the majority of Americans thought we were on the right track.

George Bush says he speaks to god every day, & Christians love him for it. If George Bush said he spoke to god through his hair dryer, they would think he was mad. I fail to see how the addition of a hair dryer makes it any more absurd.

Donald Trump is a nice guy. He really is. Very personable. Sits there and talks to everybody. I'm happy. I like to see something new. I think it's exciting. He's got a great-looking family. His wife didn't look too bad. Not bad at all. This could be exciting.

I've always learned how to deal with my problems through my words, through my education, and through my intelligence, which I think is important and the best way to deal with an issue.

If you think that people today, like Hollywood, are ever gonna sing [Donald] Trump's praises, it's never gonna happen. It's only going to get worse. And they know it at the White House. They're not expecting these people to be won over. That's not why Trump's doing anything he's doing. They don't expect the establishment types to one day say, "You know what? You're right, Mr. Trump, this is great. We like what you're doing." It's never gonna happen. They don't expect that to happen.