Virginia Woolf Quotes

The first atrocity, the first war crime committed in any war of aggression by the aggressors is against the truth.

It is precisely the purpose of the public opinion generated by the press to make the public incapable of judging, to insinuate into it the attitude of someone irresponsible, uninformed.

No sir, anybody who went out and got into the front line trenches to fight for liberty was a goddamn fool and the guy who got him there was a liar.

Don't let them tell us stories.

Well, politics is war, and in war, truth is the first casualty.

The first casualty when war comes is truth.

People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.

In a war, as indeed at most times, we become the ready victims of phrases.

Propaganda must not serve the truth, especially insofar as it might bring out something favorable to the opponent.... The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.

As Pa said, censorship encouraged people to believe nonsense.

The appalling thing about war is that it kills all love of truth.

The most critical threat to our freedom is a failure to appreciate the power of truth.

How do wars start? Diplomats tell lies to journalists, then believe what they read.

In war, truth is often the first casualty.

Hitler and Joseph Goebbels understood that if you say something loud and long enough many people will believe it. A good journalist's first priority should be to separate propaganda from fact - but sometimes its very hard to do that.

There's no such thing as a war against terrorism. It's idiotic. These are slogans. These are lies. It's advertising, which is the only art form we ever invented and developed.

The first casualty in any war is the truth. In World War II, I was part of a group of people who used to meet once a week with the sole purpose of analyzing the news and trying to work out what we weren't being told. We thought that we were clever, but we had absolutely no idea what was really going on. It was only years later that we learned the true story.

New Rule: President Bush must stop acting like WE'RE the idiots. He gives speech after speech, and the theme is always the same; 'What part of freedom don't you get, you morons?'. I'll answer that for you Mr. President. The part where you give it to people by blowing them up.

Ever since I came to Congress in 1992, there are those who have been trying to silence my voice. I've been told to 'sit down and shut up' over and over again. Well, I won't sit down and I won't shut up until the full and unvarnished truth is placed before the American people.

In our time political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.

This is a nation that has lost the ability to be self-critical, and that makes a lie out of the freedoms.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

We studied Western journalists' reporting methods, fed them story ideas, steered them toward sympathetic interviewees, and supplied them with the revolutionary movement's facts and figures.

The Press, which is mostly controlled by vested interests, has an excessive influence on public opinion.

The expressions of newspapers, like those of orators, could not be accepted without allowance, for they aimed at producing some desired effect, and said either more or less than the truth.