I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
Will RogersRead
All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that's an alibi for my ignorance.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the limitations of knowledge gained from superficial sources like newspapers.
Will Rogers expresses that relying solely on newspapers for information can lead to ignorance. He suggests that the information presented in such media is often incomplete or biased, and one should seek deeper understanding rather than accept what is published at face value. This acknowledgment serves as a reflection on the importance of critical thinking and personal investigation in the pursuit of knowledge.
Themes
KnowledgeIgnoranceMediaNewspapersWisdom
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the impact of media on public opinion, one could say, 'As Will Rogers said, All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that's an alibi for my ignorance.'
More from Will Rogers
All quotes βPeople who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.
Will RogersRead
Why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as well as prohibition did, in five years Americans would be the smartest race of people on Earth.
Will RogersRead
The 1928 Republican Convention opened with a prayer. If the Lord can see His way clear to bless the Republican Party the way it's been carrying on, then the rest of us ought to get it without even asking.
Will RogersRead
Let advertisers spend the same amount of money improving their product that they do on advertising and they wouldn't have to advertise it.
Will RogersRead
The man with the best job in the country is the vice-president. All he has to do is get up every morning and say, 'How is the president?'
Will RogersRead
Similar quotes
My description of wisdom has nothing to do with benevolence and righteousness, it is to do with being wise in one's own virtue, nothing more. My description of being has nothing to do with benevolence and righteousness, it is that one should be led by one's innate nature, nothing more.
ZhuangziRead
When your mind is liberated, your heart floods with compassion.
Nhat HanhRead
There is no pleasure without a tincture of bitterness.
HafezRead
It has cost them but a moment to cut off that head; but a hundred years will not be sufficient to produce another like it.
Joseph-Louis LagrangeRead
This grieved me heartily ; and now I saw, though too late, the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it.
Daniel DefoeRead
It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet.
Franz KafkaRead