Quotes by David Halberstam

About David Halberstam:

David Halberstam was an American journalist and historian, known for his work on the Vietnam War, politics, history, the Civil Rights Movement, business, media, American culture, and later, sports journalism. He won a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1964. In 2007, while doing research for a book, Halberstam was killed in a car crash.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

This was the mark of an uncommon soldier, someone whose courage away from the battlefield was the same as that on it.

David Halberstam

Sometimes the best virtue learned on the battlefield is modesty.

David Halberstam

The author describes megalomania as seen in Chairman Mao by saying that what he was familiar with, he was really familiar with. This zeal moved the megalomaniac with a complete lack of appreciation for what he DID NOT know.

David Halberstam

Peterson thought it an unusual friendship, one only the Army could forge.

David Halberstam

If he (George Keenan)felt on occasion more than a little uncomfortable when being listened to, then he was truly unhappy when not being listened to.

David Halberstam

Because history became his (Keenan's) genuine passion, he tended to see the world in terms of deep historical forces that, in his mind, formed a nation's character in ways almost beyond the consciousness of the men who momentarily governed it, as if ...

David Halberstam

Gen. Matthew Ridgeway "intended not to impose his will on his men, but to allow the men under him to find something in themselves that would make them more confident, more purposeful fighting men. It was their confidence in themselves that would make...

David Halberstam

Fear was the terrible secret of the battlefiled and could afflict the brave as well as the timid. Worse it was contagious, and could destroy a unit before a battle even began. Because of that, commanders were first and foremost in the fear suppressio...

David Halberstam

The truth posed a great dilemma for a man who always had to be right, and yet, for all his grandeur, was often wrong.

David Halberstam

Most commanders wanted as many good sources of information as possible. MacArthur was focused on limiting and controlling his sources of intelligence.

David Halberstam

What looked safe was not safe. What looked hard and unsafe was probably safer. Anyway, safe was somewhere else in the world.

David Halberstam

The Patriots had picked Brady in the sixth round, and he soon turned out to be one of the two or three best quarterbacks in the League, and absolutely perfect for the Belichick system and for the team's offense. So, as the team continued to make a se...

David Halberstam

[On writing:] "There's a great quote by Julius Irving that went, 'Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don't feel like doing them.'" ( , interview with Budd Mishkin; , March 25, 2007.)

David Halberstam

The byline is a replacement for many other things, not the least of them money. If someone ever does a great psychological profile of journalism as a profession, what will be apparent will be the need for gratification—if not instant, then certainl...

David Halberstam

Most journalists are impatient to get their legwork done and to start the actual writing

David Halberstam

No son of mine is going to be a goddamn liberal, Kennedy interjected. Now, now Joe, Luce answered, of course he’s got to run as a liberal. A Democrat has to run left of center to get the vote in the big northern cities, so don’t hold it against h...

David Halberstam

he [Robert Lovett] knew that those whose names were always in print, who were always on the radio and television, were there precisely because they did have power, that those who did hold or had access to power tried to keep out of sight. Halberstam,...

David Halberstam

DiMaggio's grace came to represent more than athletic skill in those years. To the men who wrote about the game, it was a talisman, a touchstone, a symbol of the limitless potential of the human individual. That an Italian immigrant, a fisherman's so...

David Halberstam

If you're a reporter, the easiest thing in the world is to get a story. The hardest thing is to verify. The old sins were about getting something wrong, that was a cardinal sin. The new sin is to be boring.

David Halberstam

Nixon, who spent much of his career attacking the press and saying he was a victim of the press, was in fact created by the press, in this case the L.A. Times.

David Halberstam

Author Bio

  • NameDavid Halberstam
  • DescriptionAmerican writer, journalist, historian
  • BornApril 10, 1934
  • DiedApril 23, 2007
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionJournalist; Historian; Writer
  • AwardsNorman Mailer Prize; Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award; George Polk Award