Ted Koppel

“In the days of Caesar, kings had fools and jesters. Now network presidents have anchormen.”

“I have been an unabashed fan of NPR for many years, and have stolen untold excellent ideas from its programming.”

“Emotions get in the way but they don't pay me to start crying at the loss of 269 lives. They pay me to put some perspective on the situation.”

“My function is, as objectively and accurately as I can, to present reality to people out there, and doing that as quickly as we do is quite difficult enough, thank you.”

“People shouldn't expect the mass media to do investigative stories. That job belongs to the 'fringe' media.”

“History is a tool used by politicians to justify their intentions.”

“My level of cynicism about the reasons that took us to war against Iraq remain just as well-developed as they were before I went.”

“I have the necessary lack of tact.”

“There is something very very special, universal and easily identifiable among all Jews; it is beyond territory, it is something we all have in common.”

“Our society finds truth too strong a medicine to digest undiluted. In its purest form, truth is not a polite tap on the shoulder. It is a howling reproach.”

“I think we're glazing eyes all across America.”

“Aspire to decency. Practice civility toward one another. Admire and emulate ethical behavior wherever you find it. Apply a rigid standard of morality to your lives; and if, periodically, you fail ­ as you surely will ­ adjust your lives, not the standards.”

“The responsibility that I feel is to do as good a job as a journalist as I can possibly do.”

“There is no more respected or influential forum in the field of journalism than the New York Times. I look forward, with great anticipation, to contributing to its op-ed page.”

“More than four thousand programs produced and consumed. Some of them were pretty good, a great many of them were forgettable; but a handful may even be worth a book.”