Quotes from Daniel J. Boorstin

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.

What is more natural in a democratic age than that we should begin to measure the stature of a work of art-especially of a painting-by how widely and how well it is reproduced?

Each living art object, taken out of its native habitat so we can conveniently gaze at it, is like an animal in a zoo. Something about it has died in the removal.

Technology is so much fun but we can drown in our technology. The fog of information can drive out knowledge.

The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents and the ocean was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.

The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes "sight-seeing."

The traditional novel form continues to enlarge our experience in those very areas where the wide-angle lens and the Cinema screen tend to narrow it.

The American experience stirred mankind from discovery to exploration. From the cautious quest for what they knew (or thought they knew) was out there, into an enthusiastic reaching to the unknown. These are two substantially different kinds of human enterprise.

A sign of a celebrity is often that his name is worth more than his services.

A celebrity is a person who is known for his well-knownness.

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -- it is the illusion of knowledge.

An image is not simply a trademark, a design, a slogan or an easily remembered picture. It is a studiously crafted personality profile of an individual, institution, corporation, product or service.

The modern American tourist now fills his experience with pseudo-events. He has come to expect both more strangeness and more familiarity than the world naturally offers. He has come to believe that he can have a lifetime of adventure in two weeks and all the thrills of risking his life without any real risk at all.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some hire PR officers.

There is no disinfectant like success.

There's something beautifully soothing about a fact — even (or perhaps especially) if we're not sure what it means.

The force of the advertising word and image dwarfs the power of other literature in the 20th century.

Time makes heroes but dissolves celebrities.

The celebrity is a person who is known for his well-knownness.

As you make your bed, so you must lie in it.

Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know.

The courage to imagine the otherwise is our greatest resource, adding color and suspense to all our life.

A pseudo-event… comes about because someone has planned, planted, or incited it. Typically, it is not a train wreck or an earthquake, but an interview.

Knowledge is not simply another commodity. On the contrary. Knowledge is never used up. It increases by diffusion and grows by dispersion.