Entrepreneurs, as you know, wear many hats. One of the most important hats is that of storyteller. Telling your company’s story–the highs and lows, the vision and values, the trials and triumphs–is a critical part of building a successful business. And what better way to learn about storytelling than to hear from some of the best journalists in the business? Here are some great journalism quotes that will inspire you to tell your company’s story with authenticity and conviction.

The best journalism quotes

1. American journalism is a class institution, serving the rich and spurning the poor. — Upton Sinclair

2. Journalism, as concerns collecting information, differs little if at all from intelligence work. In my judgment, a journalist’s job is very interesting. — Vladimir Putin

3. Contradictory to my religion, I think, is journalism. — Sydney Schanberg

4. Journalism has already come to be the first power in the land. — Samuel Bowles

5. You can crush a man with journalism. — William Randolph Hearst

6. We have lost the good old British spirit. Instead we have American journalism and black–shirted buffoons making a cheap imitation of ice–cream sellers. — Oswald Mosley

7. Contradictory to my religion, I think, is journalism. — Sydney Schanberg

8. I think that a failure of statistical thinking is the major intellectual shortcoming of our universities, journalism and intellectual culture. — Steven Pinker

9. Many people would no more think of entering journalism than the sewage business–which at least does us all some good. — Stephen Fry

10. His genius had only begun to flower. This was only journalism, after all, a cup of tea on the way to his eventual triumph as a novelist. — Tom Wolfe

11. You can crush a man with journalism. — William Randolph Hearst

12. Contradictory to my religion, I think, is journalism. — Sydney Schanberg

13. American journalism (like the journalism of any other country) is predominantly paltry and worthless. Its pretensions are enormous, but its achievements are insignificant. — H.L. Mencken

14. If I wasn’t an actor, I’d probably be working in journalism. — Sophia Bush

15. Objective journalism and an opinion column are about as similar as the Bible and Playboy magazine. — Walter Cronkite

16. If journalism is the first draft of history, then digital literacy is the first blush of the first page of history. — Michael Eric Dyson

17. I think when money starts to corrupt journalism, it undermines the journalism, and it undermines the credibility of the product, and you end up not succeeding. — Walter Isaacson

18. The profession of journalism ought to be about telling people what they need to know–not what they want to know. — Walter Cronkite

19. The best fiction is far more true than any journalism. — William Faulkner

20. The journalism school helped me develop writing skills, and I had been enjoying cartooning from a very young age. My interest in puppetry, however, came much later. — William Jackson

21. A journalist covering politics, most of us are aware of the necessity to try to be sure we’re unbiased in our reporting. That’s one of the fundamentals of good journalism. — Walter Cronkite

22. I didn’t start off as a journalist; I started off as a poet. My ambition was to practise poetry. Then I found journalism, but that other voice never fled from me. — Ta–Nehisi Coates

23. The best fiction is far more true than any journalism. — William Faulkner

24. In journalism, there are only two stories–’Oh, the wonder of it, ‘ and ‘Oh, the shame of it. — Robert Reich

25. I would trust citizen journalism as much as I would trust citizen surgery. — Morley Safer

26. In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever. — Oscar Wilde

27. I want to help clean up the state that is so sorry today of journalism. And I have a communications degree. — Sarah Palin

28. There is no more respected or influential forum in the field of journalism than the New York Times. I look forward, with great anticipation, to contributing to its op–ed page. — Ted Koppel

29. Many people would no more think of entering journalism than the sewage business–which at least does us all some good. — Stephen Fry

30. Journalism is unreadable, and literature is unread. — Oscar Wilde

31. The best fiction is far more true than any journalism. — William Faulkner

32. As for modern journalism, it is not my business to defend it. It justifies its own existence by the great Darwinian principle of the survival of the vulgarest. — Oscar Wilde

33. I’ve always loved shows like ’48 Hours’ and ‘Dateline, ‘ and I’ve always been passionate about getting to the truth, and journalism. — Regina Hall

34. You can crush a man with journalism. — William Randolph Hearst

35. Journalism keeps you planted in the earth. — Ray Bradbury

36. There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil. — Walter Lippmann

37. It’s true that journalism in reality is not the journalism that we learnt in the university. It is far from it. — Nilantha Ilangamuwa

38. Journalism: an ability to meet the challenge of filling the space. — Rebecca West

39. Journalism keeps you planted in the earth. — Ray Bradbury

40. I have always been of the opinion that the right kind of journalism is a critical part of our democracy. — Pierre Omidyar

41. The best fiction is far more true than any journalism. — William Faulkner

42. God, newspapers have been making up stories forever. This kind of trifling and fooling around is not a function of the New Journalism. — Tom Wolfe

43. If I wasn’t an actor, I’d probably be working in journalism. — Sophia Bush

44. The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read. — Oscar Wilde, Miscellaneous Aphorisms; The Soul of Man

45. Journalism in America is dead. I’ve been saying it on the air since 2008. — Sean Hannity

46. The journalism school helped me develop writing skills, and I had been enjoying cartooning from a very young age. My interest in puppetry, however, came much later. — William Jackson

47. Not everyone realises that to write a really good piece of journalism is at least as demanding intellectually as the achievement of any scholar. — Max Weber

48. To conclude: good journalism is one of the models of good conversation and communication in the wider social context. — Rowan D. Williams

49. Journalism has already come to be the first power in the land. — Samuel Bowles

50. Ideology, politics and journalism, which luxuriate in failure, are impotent in the face of hope and joy. — P. J. O’Rourke

Conclusion

Journalism is an important profession. It has the power to shape our world and its stories can have a profound impact on our lives. Journalism is often a thankless task, but its practitioners are some of the bravest and most dedicated people around. We hope you enjoyed this collection of quotes about journalism and that it inspires you to continue to seek out the truth.