Kingman Brewster, Jr. Quotes (1919-1988)

“You and I know that there is a correlation between the creative and the screwball. So we must suffer the screwball gladly.”

“I’m very curious to know what the hell they’re saying on the phone, but I’d be more worried if they weren’t talking.”

“Judgment is more than skill. It sets forth on intellectual seas beyond the shores of hard indisputable factual information.”

“There is no greater challenge than to have someone relying upon you; no greater satisfaction than to vindicate his expectation.”

“While the spoken word can travel faster, you can’t take it home in your hand. Only the written word can be absorbed wholly at the convenience of the reader.”

“Universities should be safe havens where ruthless examination of realities will not be distorted by the aim to please or inhibited by the risk of displeasure.”

“Maybe you are the “cool” generation … If coolness means a capacity to stay calm and use your head in the service of ends passionately believed in, then it has my admiration.”

“The function of a briefing paper is to prevent the ambassador from saying something dreadfully indiscreet. I sometimes think its true object is to prevent the ambassador from saying anything at all.”

“Perhaps the most fundamental value of a liberal education is that it makes life more interesting.
It allows you to think things which do not occur to the less learned ... it makes it less likely that you will be bored with life.”

“It is the natural desire of each nation to use the other as an instrument of its own purposes and policies. By dint of our mutual dependence, your influence is amplified by our power. Our power is made more responsible and more effective by your influence.”

“None of these strictures, however, should inhibit any one of us, in his individual capacity, from declaring himself on the issues of the trial and its fairness … So in spite of my insistence on the limits of my official capacity, I personally want to say that I am appalled and ashamed that things should have come to such a pass in this country that I am skeptical of the ability of black revolutionaries to achieve a fair trial anywhere in the United States. In large part this atmosphere has been created by police actions and prosecutions against the Panthers in many parts of the country. It is also one more inheritance from centuries of racial discrimination and oppression…. The first contribution to the fairness of the trial which anyone can make is to cool rather than heat up the atmosphere in which the trial will be held.”