Russell Baker

"Television is a medium because anything well done on television is rare."

"Words are the hardest thing to get right."

"The goal is not to live forever. The goal is to create something that will."

"We are what we are—temporary people temporarily interested in temporary things."

"Life is a puzzle and you are holding only a few pieces."

"The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology."

"Humor is the only thing that can simultaneously reveal and conceal truth."

"In the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take."

"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."

"Ambition is only important in your work, never in your life."

"We live in a world of competing narratives."

"The most important thing is what you leave behind."

"Sometimes I think we're living the real-life version of a bad joke."

"You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you."

"Life doesn't always give you the people you want. It gives you the people you need."

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time."

"There's nothing to match curling up with a good book."

"Success is a terrible teacher."

"If you don't fail, you're not trying hard enough."

"Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight."

"Life is like riding a bicycle—to keep your balance, you must keep moving."

"The purpose of a newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

"I think being a writer is a wonderful life."

"Love is the answer, but while you're waiting for the answer, sex raises some pretty good questions."

"A writer is a person who writes, and a writer should write."

"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

"Time is the one resource we cannot create more of."

"Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art."

"Every generation has the same opportunity to be great."

"The future is uncertain but the future is coming."