{ "type": "topic", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television", "heading": "Quotes about television", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television.md", "quotes_count": 37, "authors_count": 20, "parent": { "name": "media", "slug": "media", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media", "heading": "Quotes about media" }, "children": [], "quotes": [ { "id": "fba1ac96-d698-45bd-bf15-9089ddec4a61", "slug": "he-had-no-interest", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians/he-had-no-interest", "text": "He had no interest in TV anymore—it looked like an electronic puppet show to him, an artificial version of an imitation world that meant nothing to him anyway.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Lev Grossman", "slug": "lev-grossman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman" }, "book": { "title": "The Magicians", "slug": "the-magicians", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 167, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lev_Grossman#The_Magicians_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:14" }, { "id": "8975781b-b647-4da3-af40-1b233868ae06", "slug": "jesus-berry-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/virtual-light/jesus-berry-you", "text": "“Jesus, Berry, you shouldn’t oughta watch TV, not unless you’re gonna pay it attention.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Gibson", "slug": "william-gibson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson" }, "book": { "title": "Virtual Light", "slug": "virtual-light", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/virtual-light" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "attention", "slug": "attention", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/attention" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bridge_trilogy#Virtual_Light_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:41" }, { "id": "4e7a9077-84c7-4643-a551-bf72071bda2f", "slug": "but-although-i-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis/mockingbird/but-although-i-had", "text": "But although I had watched television in the same way many times in my life before, I found I could no longer watch it and not think. “Give yourself to the Screen,” they had taught us. It was as basic as “Don’t ask; relax.” But I could no longer give myself to it. I no longer wanted to keep my mind silent, or use it as a vehicle for disconnected pleasure; I wanted to read, and think, and talk.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Walter Tevis", "slug": "walter-tevis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis" }, "book": { "title": "Mockingbird", "slug": "mockingbird", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis/mockingbird" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 229, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "thinking", "slug": "thinking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking" }, { "name": "reading", "slug": "reading", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Tevis#Mockingbird_(1980)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:26" }, { "id": "1ce32d7b-3b89-432b-a652-b45ae9e1edae", "slug": "that-mood-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/cosm/that-mood-had", "text": "That mood had persisted when she finally got home and, unable to sleep, watched some TV. It was as usual, a cacophony, which combined with the other audio media gave a disposable pop culture that made every moment but the present seem quaint, bloodless, dead.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory Benford", "slug": "gregory-benford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford" }, "book": { "title": "Cosm", "slug": "cosm", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/cosm" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 261, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gregory_Benford#Cosm_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:24" }, { "id": "e05ed2e3-aac3-4850-b149-85fbe67f7f3c", "slug": "yes-perhaps-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/timescape/yes-perhaps-that", "text": "Yes, perhaps that was it. For decades now the picture of the world painted by the scientists had become strange, distant, unbelievable. Far easier, then, to ignore it than try to understand. Things were too complicated. Why bother? Turn on the telly, luv. Right.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory Benford", "slug": "gregory-benford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford" }, "book": { "title": "Timescape", "slug": "timescape", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/timescape" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 146, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "ignorance", "slug": "ignorance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ignorance" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gregory_Benford#Timescape_(1980)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:22" }, { "id": "63b76eb6-95cf-4542-be77-fabe68eee6f3", "slug": "television-is-of-great", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-mikes/how-to-be-an-alien/television-is-of-great", "text": "Television is of great educational value. It teaches you while still young how to (a) kill, (b) rob, (c) embezzle, (d) shoot, (e) poison, and, generally speaking, (f) how to grow up into a Wild West outlaw or gangster by the time you leave school.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Mikes", "slug": "george-mikes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-mikes" }, "book": { "title": "How to be an Alien", "slug": "how-to-be-an-alien", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-mikes/how-to-be-an-alien" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "violence", "slug": "violence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Mikes#How_to_Be_an_Alien:_A_Handbook_for_Beginners_and_More_Advanced_Pupils_(1946)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:31" }, { "id": "df506579-4b35-4fb9-82d3-e9a93f66f5ec", "slug": "my-father-always", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/something-rotten/my-father-always", "text": "My father always argued that time was far and away the most valuable commodity we had and that temporal profligacy should be a criminal offense—which kind of makes watching Celebrity Kidney Swap or reading Daphne Farquitt novels a crime straightaway.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jasper Fforde", "slug": "jasper-fforde", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde" }, "book": { "title": "Something Rotten", "slug": "something-rotten", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/something-rotten" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 96, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "time", "slug": "time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jasper_Fforde#Something_Rotten_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:00" }, { "id": "92945e41-0844-4132-9a69-dc8ebb541793", "slug": "incredibly-enough-reality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/first-among-sequels/incredibly-enough-reality", "text": "“Incredibly enough, reality TV has just gotten worse.” “Is that possible? I asked. “Wasn’t Celebrity Trainee Pathologist the pits?” I thought for a moment. “Actually, Whose Life Support Do We Switch Off? was worse. Or maybe Sell Your Granny. Wow, the choice these days makes it also tricky to decide. Bowden laughed. “I’ll agree that Granny lowered the bar for distasteful program makers everywhere, but RTA-TV, never one to shrink from a challenge, has devised Samaritan Kidney Swap. Ten renal-failure patients take turns trying to convince a tissue-typed donor—and the voting viewers—which one should have his spare kidney.” I groaned. Reality TV was to me the worst form of entertainment—the modern equivalent of paying sixpence to watch lunatics howling at the wall down at the local madhouse.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jasper Fforde", "slug": "jasper-fforde", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde" }, "book": { "title": "First Among Sequels", "slug": "first-among-sequels", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/first-among-sequels" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 26, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jasper_Fforde#First_Among_Sequels_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:00" }, { "id": "6bc2b860-3e98-4237-a643-50727db48fc1", "slug": "tv-the-worst", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer/the-dark-design/tv-the-worst", "text": "TV, the worst thing that had happened to the twentieth century. After the atom bomb and overpopulation, of course.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip José Farmer", "slug": "philip-jose-farmer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer" }, "book": { "title": "The Dark Design", "slug": "the-dark-design", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer/the-dark-design" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 186, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Jos%C3%A9_Farmer#The_Dark_Design_(1977)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:31" }, { "id": "513cbfc2-d7a6-4266-965b-d1697f4f8890", "slug": "what-i-am-claiming", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/amusing-ourselves-to-death/what-i-am-claiming", "text": "What I am claiming here is not that television is entertaining but that it has made entertainment itself the natural format for the representation of all experience.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neil Postman", "slug": "neil-postman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman" }, "book": { "title": "Amusing Ourselves to Death", "slug": "amusing-ourselves-to-death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/amusing-ourselves-to-death" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 87, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" }, { "name": "play", "slug": "play", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/play" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Postman#Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death:_Public_Discourse_in_the_Age_of_Show_Business_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:39" }, { "id": "4280a08f-3635-4171-8459-b410c8bceb8a", "slug": "in-the-united", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/technopoly/in-the-united", "text": "In the United States, we can see such collisions everywhere... but... most clearly in the schools, where two great technologies confront each other in uncompromising aspect for the control of students' minds. On the one hand, there is the world of the printed word with its emphasis on logic, sequence, history, exposition, objectivity, detachment, and discipline. On the other there is the world of television with its emphasis on imagery, narrative, presentness, simultaneity, intimacy, immediate gratification, and quick emotional response. Children come to school having been deeply conditioned by the biases of television. ...children who cannot organize their thought into logical structure even in a simple paragraph, children who cannot attend to lectures or oral explanations for more than a few minutes at a time... They are failures because there is a media war going on, and they are on the wrong side — at least for the moment.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neil Postman", "slug": "neil-postman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman" }, "book": { "title": "Technopoly", "slug": "technopoly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/technopoly" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" }, { "name": "children", "slug": "children", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/children" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Postman#Technopoly:_the_Surrender_of_Culture_to_Technology_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:39" }, { "id": "8a4aac98-bddb-4fad-a65c-b224d70b24bd", "slug": "dont-you-think", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/invisible-monsters/dont-you-think", "text": "Don't you think that somehow television makes us God?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Invisible Monsters", "slug": "invisible-monsters", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/invisible-monsters" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Invisible_Monsters#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:48" }, { "id": "21e7e0cd-f1ba-4266-831e-3265a7eadd7f", "slug": "game-shows-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/invisible-monsters/game-shows-are", "text": "Game shows are designed to make us feel better about the random, useless facts that are all we have left of our education.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Invisible Monsters", "slug": "invisible-monsters", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/invisible-monsters" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Invisible_Monsters#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:47" }, { "id": "beb2eca1-3595-4415-aabc-e4bc55954079", "slug": "dont-you-hate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jerry-seinfeld/seinlanguage/dont-you-hate", "text": "Don't you hate \"To Be Continued\"s on TV? [...] I mean the whole reason you watch a TV show is because it ends. If I wanted a long, boring story with no point to it, I've got my life.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jerry Seinfeld", "slug": "jerry-seinfeld", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jerry-seinfeld" }, "book": { "title": "Seinlanguage", "slug": "seinlanguage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jerry-seinfeld/seinlanguage" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jerry_Seinfeld#SeinLanguage_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:26" }, { "id": "21745715-069c-46ce-81f2-163c4d99d5db", "slug": "the-best-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson/neither-here-nor-there/the-best-that", "text": "The best that can be said for Norwegian television is that it gives you the sensation of a coma without the worry and inconvenience.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Bill Bryson", "slug": "bill-bryson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson" }, "book": { "title": "Neither Here Nor There", "slug": "neither-here-nor-there", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson/neither-here-nor-there" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_Bryson#Neither_Here_nor_There:_Travels_in_Europe_(1991)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:35" }, { "id": "131468dc-e135-4afb-b634-05760725d78c", "slug": "the-face-on-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/white-noise/the-face-on-the", "text": "The face on the screen was Babette's... I'd seen her just an hour ago, eating eggs, but her appearance on the screen made me think of her as some distant figure from the past, some ex-wife and absentee mother, a walker in the mists of the dead.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Don DeLillo", "slug": "don-delillo", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo" }, "book": { "title": "White Noise", "slug": "white-noise", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/white-noise" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/White_Noise_(novel)#General", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:38" }, { "id": "dbb475ed-2e40-48ac-ab1a-8634b8a35442", "slug": "the-mosaic-form", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media/the-mosaic-form", "text": "The mosaic form of the TV image demands participation and involvement in depth, of the whole being, as does the sense of touch. (p. 334)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Marshall McLuhan", "slug": "marshall-mcluhan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan" }, "book": { "title": "Understanding Media", "slug": "understanding-media", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan#Understanding_Media_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:13" }, { "id": "80bc3a07-88ae-40cf-a310-720ebae4f620", "slug": "in-television-images", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/the-medium-is-the-massage/in-television-images", "text": "In television, images are projected at you. You are the screen. The images wrap around you. You are the vanishing point. (p. 125)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Marshall McLuhan", "slug": "marshall-mcluhan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan" }, "book": { "title": "The Medium is the Massage", "slug": "the-medium-is-the-massage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/the-medium-is-the-massage" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan#The_Medium_is_the_Massage_(1967)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:13" }, { "id": "16e361d4-de5d-4d68-b71e-a8ab40605352", "slug": "we-are-no-more", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media/we-are-no-more", "text": "We are no more prepared to encounter radio and TV in our literate milieu than the native of Ghana is able to cope with the literacy that takes him out of his collective tribal world and beaches him in individual isolation. (xx)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Marshall McLuhan", "slug": "marshall-mcluhan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan" }, "book": { "title": "Understanding Media", "slug": "understanding-media", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "media", "slug": "media", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan#Understanding_Media_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:13" }, { "id": "24df7070-991d-4344-b0f9-8bf0f6b72929", "slug": "one-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media/one-of-the", "text": "One of the many effects of television on radio has been to shift radio from an entertainment medium into a kind of nervous information system. (p. 298)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Marshall McLuhan", "slug": "marshall-mcluhan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan" }, "book": { "title": "Understanding Media", "slug": "understanding-media", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "media", "slug": "media", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan#Understanding_Media_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:12" }, { "id": "a873fe7c-b19d-450c-97ce-bbc49b12b3e4", "slug": "at-first-i-thought", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/al-gore/the-assault-on-reason/at-first-i-thought", "text": "At first I thought the exhaustive, nonstop coverage of the O. J. Simpson trial was just an unfortunate excess — an unwelcome departure from the normal good sense and judgment of our television news media. Now we know that it was merely an early example of a new pattern of serial obsessions that periodically take over the airwaves for weeks at a time: the Michael Jackson trial and the Robert Blake trial, the Laci Peterson tragedy and the Chandra Levy tragedy, Britney and KFed, Lindsay and Paris and Nicole. While American television watchers were collectively devoting 100 million hours of their lives each week to these and other similar stories, our nation was in the process of more quietly making what future historians will certainly describe as a series of catastrophically mistaken decisions on issues of war and peace, the global climate and human survival, freedom and barbarity, justice and fairness. For example, hardly anyone now disagrees that the choice to invade Iraq was a grievous mistake. Yet, incredibly, all of the evidence and arguments necessary to have made the right decision were available at the time and in hindsight are glaringly obvious.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Al Gore", "slug": "al-gore", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/al-gore" }, "book": { "title": "The Assault on Reason", "slug": "the-assault-on-reason", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/al-gore/the-assault-on-reason" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "media", "slug": "media", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Al_Gore#The_Assault_on_Reason_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:55" }, { "id": "98237e05-38b4-4815-bc4d-a1f8b15f2e79", "slug": "televisions-quasi-hypnotic-effect", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/al-gore/the-assault-on-reason/televisions-quasi-hypnotic-effect", "text": "Television's quasi-hypnotic effect is one reason that the political economy supported by the television industry is as different from the vibrant politics of America's first century as those politics were different from the feudalism that thrived on the ignorance of the masses of people in the Dark Ages. Our systematic exposure to fear and other arousal stimuli on television can be exploited by the clever public relations specialist, advertiser, or politician.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Al Gore", "slug": "al-gore", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/al-gore" }, "book": { "title": "The Assault on Reason", "slug": "the-assault-on-reason", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/al-gore/the-assault-on-reason" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Al_Gore#The_Assault_on_Reason_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:55" }, { "id": "46a21b84-f161-4e31-8b78-92bb47055b6b", "slug": "in-the-world", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/al-gore/the-assault-on-reason/in-the-world", "text": "In the world of television, the massive flows of information are largely in only one direction, which makes it virtually impossible for individuals to take part in what passes for a national conversation. Individuals receive, but they cannot send. They hear, but they do not speak. The \"well-informed citizenry\" is in danger of becoming the \"well-amused audience.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Al Gore", "slug": "al-gore", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/al-gore" }, "book": { "title": "The Assault on Reason", "slug": "the-assault-on-reason", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/al-gore/the-assault-on-reason" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "democracy", "slug": "democracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Al_Gore#The_Assault_on_Reason_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:55" }, { "id": "9793f60d-e797-4dc1-8ad7-fb50d91e5248", "slug": "all-this-probing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-remembered/all-this-probing", "text": "All this probing and grappling we must do, out in society: how much easier, Annabelle thinks, it is to stay in rooms you know as well as your own body, having a warm meal and an evening of television, where it's all so comfortably one-way.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Hoyer Updike", "slug": "john-hoyer-updike", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike" }, "book": { "title": "Rabbit Remembered", "slug": "rabbit-remembered", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-remembered" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Updike#Rabbit_Remembered_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:31" }, { "id": "5d2f637d-d857-4935-8c74-29466c4d53c3", "slug": "in-the-age", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin/the-image/in-the-age", "text": "In the age of pseudo‑events it is less the artificial sim­plification than the artificial complication of experience that confuses us. Whenever in the public mind a pseudo‑event competes for attention with a spontaneous event in the same field, the pseudo‑event will tend to dominate. What happens on television will overshadow what happens off television.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Daniel J. Boorstin", "slug": "daniel-j-boorstin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin" }, "book": { "title": "The Image", "slug": "the-image", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin/the-image" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 39, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "media", "slug": "media", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_J._Boorstin#The_Image:_A_Guide_to_Pseudo-Events_in_America_(1961)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:07" }, { "id": "5edd3837-54f5-43ed-9960-867a59f52fe9", "slug": "ive-invented-a-new", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/childhoods-end/ive-invented-a-new", "text": "“I've invented a new definition for TV,” he muttered gloomily. “I've decided it’s a device for hindering communication between artist and audience.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Arthur C. Clarke", "slug": "arthur-c-clarke", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke" }, "book": { "title": "Childhood's End", "slug": "childhoods-end", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/childhoods-end" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Childhood's_End#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:52" }, { "id": "8f845177-cc9a-4ec2-9215-5ddb70ce35e8", "slug": "if-you-can", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/damned/if-you-can", "text": "If you can watch much television, then being dead will be a cinch. Actually, watching television and surfing the Internet are really excellent practice for being dead.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Damned", "slug": "damned", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/damned" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chuck_Palahniuk#Damned_(2011)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:00" }, { "id": "e9636ecb-6861-4298-a143-1a8f81f09ed7", "slug": "leather-shoes-and", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/haunted/leather-shoes-and", "text": "Leather shoes and fried chicken and dead soldiers are only a tragedy if you waste their gift sitting in front of the television. Or stuck in traffic. Or stranded at some airport.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Haunted", "slug": "haunted", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/haunted" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chuck_Palahniuk#Haunted_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:59" }, { "id": "d62500cd-2a4b-471c-9490-14182945cd0f", "slug": "no-one-wants", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby/no-one-wants", "text": "No one wants to admit we're addicted to music. That's just not possible. No one's addicted to music and television and radio. We just need more of it, more channels, a larger screen, more volume. We can't bear to be without it, but no, nobody's addicted. We could turn it off anytime we wanted. I fit a window frame into a brick wall. With a little brush, the size for fingernail polish, I glue it. The window is the size of a fingernail. The glue smells like hair spray. The smell tastes like oranges and gasoline", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Lullaby", "slug": "lullaby", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "music", "slug": "music", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/music" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" }, { "name": "addiction", "slug": "addiction", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/addiction" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chuck_Palahniuk#Lullaby_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:58" }, { "id": "cf9a7eda-a7fa-48ae-b419-2b1355c3c3ba", "slug": "down-through-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby/down-through-the", "text": "Down through the ceiling comes a fire siren and people screaming that we're supposed to ignore. The gunshots and tires squeeling, sounds wee have to pretend are okay. They don't mean anything. It's just television. An explosion vibrates down from the upstairs. A woman begs someone not to rape her. It's not real. It's just a movie. We're the culture that cried wolf.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Lullaby", "slug": "lullaby", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "media", "slug": "media", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chuck_Palahniuk#Lullaby_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:58" }, { "id": "a3605e4c-97ee-45b0-a652-bdd73463cce3", "slug": "we-come-from", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby/we-come-from", "text": "We come from a generation of people who need their TV or stereo playing all the time. These people so scared of silence. These soundaholics, these quietophobics.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Lullaby", "slug": "lullaby", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "silence", "slug": "silence-2", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/silence-2" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chuck_Palahniuk#Lullaby_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:58" }, { "id": "10ac8a30-e56d-401d-a052-9b0c499f109e", "slug": "the-muffled-thunder", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby/the-muffled-thunder", "text": "The muffled thunder of dialogue comes through the walls, then a chorus of laughter. Then more thunder. Most of the laugh tracks on television were recorded in the early 1950s. These days, most of the people you hear laughing are dead.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Lullaby", "slug": "lullaby", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chuck_Palahniuk#Lullaby_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:58" }, { "id": "21897e7b-04ed-495a-8eae-8f0ce6ab44d0", "slug": "only-one-thing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac/the-dharma-bums/only-one-thing", "text": "Only one thing I'll say for the people watching television, the millions and millions of the One Eye: they're not hurting anyone", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack Kerouac", "slug": "jack-kerouac", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac" }, "book": { "title": "The Dharma Bums", "slug": "the-dharma-bums", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac/the-dharma-bums" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Dharma_Bums", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:31" }, { "id": "ca840e67-d9f6-4e90-8711-a5143444f3d0", "slug": "i-was-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/distrust-that-particular-flavor/i-was-born", "text": "I was born in 1948. I can't recall a world before television...Initially there was nothing on it but “snow,” and then the nightly advent of a targetlike device called “the test pattern,” which people actually gathered to watch. I imagine that the World Wide Web and its modest wonders are no more than the test pattern for whatever the twenty-first century will regard as its equivalent medium.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Gibson", "slug": "william-gibson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson" }, "book": { "title": "Distrust that Particular Flavor", "slug": "distrust-that-particular-flavor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/distrust-that-particular-flavor" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" }, { "name": "the internet", "slug": "the-internet", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-internet" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Gibson#Distrust_That_Particular_Flavor_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:10" }, { "id": "193e318f-ce77-4029-a615-0959308a2664", "slug": "if-the-use", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eleanor-roosevelt/my-day/if-the-use", "text": "If the use of leisure time is confined to looking at TV for a few extra hours every day, we will deteriorate as a people. (5 November 1958)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eleanor Roosevelt", "slug": "eleanor-roosevelt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eleanor-roosevelt" }, "book": { "title": "My Day", "slug": "my-day", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eleanor-roosevelt/my-day" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" }, { "name": "rest", "slug": "rest", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rest" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eleanor_Roosevelt#My_Day_(1935%E2%80%931962)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:57" }, { "id": "542fccd4-4e71-443e-a202-a1fbca130fee", "slug": "humans-are-very", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/contact/humans-are-very", "text": "Humans are very good at dreaming, although you'd never know it from your television.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Carl Sagan", "slug": "carl-sagan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan" }, "book": { "title": "Contact", "slug": "contact", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/contact" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 359, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "dreams and aspirations", "slug": "dreams-and-aspirations", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations" }, { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan#Contact_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:28" }, { "id": "b80fe43a-27fd-454c-84a8-2ab58c2e64ea", "slug": "a-depressing-thought", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/3001-the-final-odyssey/a-depressing-thought", "text": "A depressing thought occurred to him, soon after he had started exploring - much of the time in fast-forward - these relics of the past. He had read somewhere that by the turn of the century - his century! - there were approximately fifty thousand television stations broadcasting simultaneously. If that figure had been maintained and it might well have increased - by now millions of millions of hours of TV programming must have gone on the air. So even the most hardened cynic would admit that there were probably at least a billion hours of worthwhile viewing... and millions that would pass the highest standards of excellence. How to find these few - well, few million - needles in so gigantic a haystack? The thought was so overwhelming - indeed, so demoralizing - that after a week of increasingly aimless channel surfing Poole asked for the set to be removed. p. 13", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Arthur C. Clarke", "slug": "arthur-c-clarke", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke" }, "book": { "title": "3001 The Final Odyssey", "slug": "3001-the-final-odyssey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/3001-the-final-odyssey" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "television", "slug": "television", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke#3001:_The_Final_Odyssey_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:16" } ] }