Dan Rather

I've never believed in measuring one's worth by the size of his or her bank account. I prefer to look at distance traveled.

An intellectual snob is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of The Lone Ranger.

The dream begins, most of the time,with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you on to the next plateau sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth

Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn't block traffic.

But we cannot rely on memorials and museums alone. We can tell ourselves we will never forget and we likely won't. But we need to make sure that we teach history to those who never had the opportunity to remember in the first place.

Don't taunt the alligator until after you've crossed the creek.

I still love following and thinking about politics. I enjoy recommending important journalism I read or see from other sources.

If all difficulties were known at the outset of a long journey, most of us would never start out at all.

What separated Ed Murrow from the rest of the pack was courage.

Courage is being afraid but going on anyhow.

A tough lesson in life that one has to learn is that not everybody wishes you well.

A free and truly independent press - fiercely independent when necessary - is the red beating heart of freedom and democracy.

The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called 'truth'.

Now, I know you expected me to say that, well, I just kick back in the rocking chair, fished a little bit, listened to Willie Nelson tapes and watched old baseball games on the Classic Sports network. And, tell you the truth, I have done that for maybe about five total minutes.

Journalism is not a precise science, it's a crude art

I've tried everything. I can say to you with confidence, I know a fair amount about LSD. I've never been a social user of any of these things, but my curiosity has carried me into a lot of interesting areas.

I had someone at the Houston police station shoot me with heroin so I could do a story about it. The experience was a special kind of hell. I came out understanding full well how one could be addicted to 'smack,' and quickly.

I got addicted. News, particularly daily news, is more addictive than crack cocaine, more addictive than heroin, more addictive than cigarettes.