Ted Koppel

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.

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.

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.

Set your sights beyond what you can see. There is true majesty in the concept of an unseen power which can neither be measured nor weighed.

You can almost measure where you are in life by the degree to which you have begun looking back rather than ahead.

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

There's harmony and inner peace to be found in following a moral compass that points in the same direction regardless of fashion or trend.

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.