If you appreciate sharp wit, media criticism, and timeless observations about American culture, exploring A. J. Liebling Quotes is a rewarding experience. Known for his brilliant essays and fearless commentary, A. J. Liebling was one of the most influential journalists of the 20th century. As a longtime writer for The New Yorker, Liebling developed a reputation for blending humor, skepticism, and intellectual depth in his reporting.
What makes A. J. Liebling Quotes especially relevant today is their insight into journalism, power, and public discourse. He famously critiqued the press, politics, and the influence of institutions on everyday citizens. His reflections on media responsibility and freedom of the press continue to resonate strongly in the United States, where debates about news, bias, and credibility remain central to public life.
Many A. J. Liebling Quotes highlight his belief that information is power. One of his most cited observations underscores the idea that freedom of the press belongs primarily to those who own one—a statement that still sparks discussion in modern media circles. His writing combined satire with serious analysis, offering readers both entertainment and thought-provoking commentary.
Beyond journalism, A. J. Liebling Quotes also touch on food, culture, and the human condition. He was known for his lively travel writing and culinary essays, proving that intellectual commentary could coexist with humor and storytelling. His ability to shift seamlessly between hard-hitting critique and lighthearted narrative demonstrates the breadth of his talent.
In this collection, we explore the most memorable and insightful A. J. Liebling Quotes about media, democracy, culture, and truth. Whether you’re a journalism student, a media enthusiast, or someone who values incisive commentary, Liebling’s words remain strikingly relevant. His legacy reminds us that thoughtful criticism, delivered with wit and clarity, can shape conversations for generations.
A. J. Liebling Quotes About Media, Power, and Democracy
“Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.” – A. J. Liebling
“The function of the press in society is to inform, but its role in society is to make money.” – A. J. Liebling
“The pattern of a newspaperman’s life is like the plot of ‘Black Beauty.’ Sometimes he finds a kind master who gives him a dry stall and an occasional bran mash in the form of a Christmas bonus, sometimes he falls into the hands of a mean owner who drives him in spite of spavins and expects him to live on potato peelings.” – A. J. Liebling
“It is impossible for me to estimate how many of my early impressions of the world, correct and the opposite, came to me through newspapers. Homicide, adultery, no-hit pitching, and Balkanism were concepts that, left to my own devices, I would have encountered much later in life.” – A. J. Liebling
“An Englishman teaching an American about food is like the blind leading the one-eyed.” – A. J. Liebling
“Southern political personalities, like sweet corn, travel badly. They lose flavor with every hundred yards away from the patch. By the time they reach New York, they are like Golden Bantam that has been trucked up from Texas – stale and unprofitable. The consumer forgets that the corn tastes different where it grows.” – A. J. Liebling
“I take a grave view of the press. It is the weak slat under the bed of democracy.” – A. J. Liebling
“A Louisiana politician can’t afford to let his animosities carry him away, and still less his principles, although there is seldom difficulty in that department.” – A. J. Liebling
“If the first requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite, the second is to put in your apprenticeship as a feeder when you have enough money to pay the check but not enough to produce indifference of the total.” – A. J. Liebling
“To the Parisians, and especially to the children, all Americans are now ‘heros du cinema.’ This is particularly disconcerting to sensitive war correspondents, if any, aware, as they are, that these innocent thanks belong to those American combat troops who won the beachhead and then made the breakthrough. There are few such men in Paris.” – A. J. Liebling
“If you just try long enough and hard enough, you can always manage to boot yourself in the posterior.” – A. J. Liebling
A. J. Liebling Quotes About Media, Power, and Democracy
“People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news.” – A. J. Liebling
“A city with one newspaper, or with a morning and an evening paper under one ownership, is like a man with one eye, and often the eye is glass.” – A. J. Liebling
“No sane man can afford to dispense with debilitating pleasures. No ascetic can be considered reliably sane.” – A. J. Liebling
“The science of booby-trapping has taken a good deal of the fun out of following hot on the enemy’s heels.” – A. J. Liebling
“There is no concept more generally cherished by publishers than that of the Undeserving Poor.” – A. J. Liebling
“Chicago seems a big city instead of merely a large place.” – A. J. Liebling
“The way to write is well, and how is your own business.” – A. J. Liebling
“I can write better than anybody who can write faster, and I can write faster than anybody who can write better.” – A. J. Liebling
“The primary requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite. Without this, it is impossible to accumulate, within the allotted span, enough experience of eating to have anything worth setting down.” – A. J. Liebling
“The world isn’t going backward, if you can just stay young enough to remember what it was really like when you were really young.” – A. J. Liebling
“If there is any way you can get colder than you do when you sleep in a bedding roll on the ground in a tent in southern Tunisia two hours before dawn, I don’t know about it.” – A. J. Liebling