Bill Maher Quotes

If our governments are so compromised that they will not tell us the truth, then we must step forward to grasp it.

There can be no democracy without truth. There can be no truth without controversy, there can be no change without freedom. Without freedom there can be no progress.

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

Media creates awareness [and] ensures transparency and accountability.

I have this sort of heuristic view that journalism, we possibly offer hope because the world is clearly run by total nincompoops more than ever... Not that journalism is always wonderful - it's not - but at least we offer some way out, some integrity.

We can't create change until we recognize and check our own actions.

I think it's important that we run that tension between the way things are, in terms of the way we're governed, and the way we sort of become complacent.

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.

When one lives in a society where people can no longer rely on the institutions to tell them the truth, the truth must come from culture and art.

By bringing current events into the classroom, everyday discussion, and social media, maybe we don't need to wait for our grandchildren's questions to remind us we should have paid more attention to current events.

I don't have any well-developed philosophy about journalism. Ultimately it is important in a society like this, so people can know about everything that goes wrong.

We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.

I am grateful to journalism for waking me up to the realities of the world.

I want to be able to talk about changing the world through your actions and being a generation that is aware and a force to be reckoned with - and at the same time be dancing.

And so it's inescapable and people who proclaim scrupulous honesty can only proclaim that if they don't examine closely the things they believe.

It's harder to take politics seriously, to understand the issues, than it is to drown it all in a sea of scorn. And while the world cries out for greater analysis and insight, we are distracted by bread and circuses, aka the 'Great British Bake-Off' and 'Tumble.' We should rediscover our tradition of satire. Of speaking truth unto power.

It is one thing to show a man that he is in an error, and another to put him in possession of the truth.

Education is not just another consumer item. It is the bedrock of our democracy.

Democracy means being able to make wrong decisions. That’s the way we learn and mature.

Somehow we must be able to show people that democracy is not about words, but action.

An open society invests in people and new ideas, rewards talent and hard work, values dialogue and learns from dissent, operates to high standards with transparent information, looks for common ground, sees problems as opportunities for creative change, and encourages those who are fortunate to help others get the same chance, because service is the highest ideal.

The time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action ... I will not stand by while the special interests use the same old tactics to keep things exactly the way they are. If you misrepresent what’s in the plan, we will call you out. And I will not accept the status quo as a solution. Not this time. Not now.

We need the self-confidence to admit that at best we possess only a partial understanding of the truth, which can be enlarged by refining our views in light of new arguments, new circumstances and new insights. But this requires us to listen to others, to weigh their arguments with care, and maybe even to learn from them.

We must never forget that higher knowledge has to do with revering truth and insight and not with revering people.

The big percentage is us, the real people, and we have to say something. You have to speak up. You have to.