Television has been a constant presence in everyday life, informing, entertaining, and shaping how stories are shared across generations. It reflects changing cultures, technologies, and tastes while connecting audiences through shared moments on screen. The following quotes explore the impact, power, and possibilities of television in all its forms.
fuzzy black lines hiccuped across the screen.
- James Patterson
Nevermore
Confession: I don't want everybody to be beautiful, not in that unlined, creaseless, symmetrical way. Android beauty, like it comes out of a test tube. Beauty without blemish or mark. Not only do I not identify with such people, I don't believe in them either. I don't even find them attractive. This is what makes watching television so hard: they don't cast actors anymore, only models. When they make a movie of my life, they'd better cast a character actor in the lead. Don't try to tell me I'm not a character.
- Lisa Samson
The Sky Beneath My Feet
Then why have you been talking about her for the past half hour straight?" His friend glanced over at him, a cheeky grin on his face, and the rockstar glared exaggeratedly.
"I have not."
"You definitely have. I missed an entire episode of Cupcake Wars because you've got a crush.
"I have not."
"You definitely have. I missed an entire episode of Cupcake Wars because you've got a crush.
- Andrea D. Smith
Love Factor
La televisión produce imágenes y anula los conceptos, y de este modo atrofia nuestra capacidad de abstracción y con ella toda nuestra capacidad de entender.
- Giovanni Sartori
Homo videns: La sociedad teledirigida
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books.
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books.
- Roald Dahl
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Personality begins where comparison leaves off. Be unique. Be memorable. Be confident. Be proud.
There is nothing more mysterious than a TV set left on in an empty room. It is even stranger than a man talking to himself or a woman standing dreaming at her stove. It is as if another planet is communicating with you. Suddenly the TV reveals itself for what it really is; a video of another world, ultimately addressed to no one at all, delivering its own message.
- Jean Baudrillard
America
Calvin:"It says here that 'religion is the opiate of the masses.'...what do you suppose that means?"
Television: "...it means that Karl Marx hadn't seen anything yet
Television: "...it means that Karl Marx hadn't seen anything yet
- Bill Watterson
Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages, 1985-1995: An Exhibition Catalogue
TV sounds are all the same; there's no difference between the sound of the wind in Northern Ireland and the wind on a Polynesian island.
- Ryu Murakami
Coin Locker Babies
rip the prisons
open
put the
convicts
on
television
open
put the
convicts
on
television
- Norman Mailer
Deaths For The Ladies
A democratic civilization will save itself only if it makes the language of the image into a stimulus for critical reflection — not an invitation for hypnosis.
- Umberto Eco
The Screen Education Reader
I had to start watching [The Real Housewives of New Jersey] every week because, well, my IQ was just too high. I mean seriously up there. What can I tell you? After watching every episode, I am now officially as dumb as that brown, particle-like stuff you find outside and don't want to track inside the house. Rhymes with "wirt", I think.
- Celia Rivenbark
You Don't Sweat Much for a Fat Girl: Observations on Life from the Shallow End of the Pool
Last week, I suggested the candidates take up mushrooms. I’ll be damned if Rick Perry didn’t take me up on that.
So I ask you: whose job is it in this country to wake up comatose parents? Someone better do it soon because knowing television's potential for harm and keeping that knowledge to ourselves instead of sharing it with parents amounts to covering up a land mine on a busy street.
- Jim Trelease
The Read-Aloud Handbook
That day, I started taking an interest in the bar's television. We always kept it on. As the hours slid by in a cacophony of talk I kept watch, throwing in the occasional comment about politicians, bankers, show biz personalities as they appeared on screen. I wasn't being nosy, you understand. Just human.
- Jonathan Gash
The Great California Game
Can I ask you to keep watching us? ... This is only the forty-eighth show. We've got more to reveal. We may have some surprises for you.
- William Harrington
Columbo: The Grassy Knoll
Re-runs are a way of life.
- Anthony T. Hincks
Philo Taylor Farnsworth successfully demonstrated the first television on Sept. 7, 1927.
Since that time, conservatives have consumed countless hours of positive programming… and completely dismissed every second of it.
Since that time, conservatives have consumed countless hours of positive programming… and completely dismissed every second of it.
- Bryan (Nyrhalahotep) Hardbarger
The three of us watched a lot of television, always discussing the programs at length.
- Andrew Neiderman
Pin
I will try to demonstrate by concrete example that television's way of knowing is uncompromisingly hostile to typography's way of knowing; that television's conversations promote incoherence and triviality; that the phrase "serious television" is a contradiction in terms; and that television speaks in only one persistent voice-the voice of entertainment.
- Neil Postman
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
To a nation of grandparents nostalgic for a time when everyone listened to Toscanini on the radio, tired of having to watch people on TV win money for bungee jumping and eating goat rectums, Jeopardy! is sweetly cerebral relief piped in straight from the Eisenhower era, a time capsule from ana age before America dumbed down.
- Ken Jennings
Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs
President Trump is the most ‘entertaining’ president.
Broadcast and satellite television and radio, the global positioning system (GPS), cellphones, and WiFi have all come at the expense of the next generation.
When the television doctors look worried talking about COVID-19, you know it is far worse than what they are saying.
fuzzy black lines hiccuped across the screen.
- James Patterson
Nevermore
Confession: I don't want everybody to be beautiful, not in that unlined, creaseless, symmetrical way. Android beauty, like it comes out of a test tube. Beauty without blemish or mark. Not only do I not identify with such people, I don't believe in them either. I don't even find them attractive. This is what makes watching television so hard: they don't cast actors anymore, only models. When they make a movie of my life, they'd better cast a character actor in the lead. Don't try to tell me I'm not a character.
- Lisa Samson
The Sky Beneath My Feet
Then why have you been talking about her for the past half hour straight?" His friend glanced over at him, a cheeky grin on his face, and the rockstar glared exaggeratedly.
"I have not."
"You definitely have. I missed an entire episode of Cupcake Wars because you've got a crush.
"I have not."
"You definitely have. I missed an entire episode of Cupcake Wars because you've got a crush.
- Andrea D. Smith
Love Factor
La televisión produce imágenes y anula los conceptos, y de este modo atrofia nuestra capacidad de abstracción y con ella toda nuestra capacidad de entender.
- Giovanni Sartori
Homo videns: La sociedad teledirigida
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books.
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books.
- Roald Dahl
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Personality begins where comparison leaves off. Be unique. Be memorable. Be confident. Be proud.
There is nothing more mysterious than a TV set left on in an empty room. It is even stranger than a man talking to himself or a woman standing dreaming at her stove. It is as if another planet is communicating with you. Suddenly the TV reveals itself for what it really is; a video of another world, ultimately addressed to no one at all, delivering its own message.
- Jean Baudrillard
America
Calvin:"It says here that 'religion is the opiate of the masses.'...what do you suppose that means?"
Television: "...it means that Karl Marx hadn't seen anything yet
Television: "...it means that Karl Marx hadn't seen anything yet
- Bill Watterson
Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages, 1985-1995: An Exhibition Catalogue
TV sounds are all the same; there's no difference between the sound of the wind in Northern Ireland and the wind on a Polynesian island.
- Ryu Murakami
Coin Locker Babies
rip the prisons
open
put the
convicts
on
television
open
put the
convicts
on
television
- Norman Mailer
Deaths For The Ladies
A democratic civilization will save itself only if it makes the language of the image into a stimulus for critical reflection — not an invitation for hypnosis.
- Umberto Eco
The Screen Education Reader
I had to start watching [The Real Housewives of New Jersey] every week because, well, my IQ was just too high. I mean seriously up there. What can I tell you? After watching every episode, I am now officially as dumb as that brown, particle-like stuff you find outside and don't want to track inside the house. Rhymes with "wirt", I think.
- Celia Rivenbark
You Don't Sweat Much for a Fat Girl: Observations on Life from the Shallow End of the Pool
Last week, I suggested the candidates take up mushrooms. I’ll be damned if Rick Perry didn’t take me up on that.
So I ask you: whose job is it in this country to wake up comatose parents? Someone better do it soon because knowing television's potential for harm and keeping that knowledge to ourselves instead of sharing it with parents amounts to covering up a land mine on a busy street.
- Jim Trelease
The Read-Aloud Handbook
That day, I started taking an interest in the bar's television. We always kept it on. As the hours slid by in a cacophony of talk I kept watch, throwing in the occasional comment about politicians, bankers, show biz personalities as they appeared on screen. I wasn't being nosy, you understand. Just human.
- Jonathan Gash
The Great California Game
Can I ask you to keep watching us? ... This is only the forty-eighth show. We've got more to reveal. We may have some surprises for you.
- William Harrington
Columbo: The Grassy Knoll
Re-runs are a way of life.
- Anthony T. Hincks
Philo Taylor Farnsworth successfully demonstrated the first television on Sept. 7, 1927.
Since that time, conservatives have consumed countless hours of positive programming… and completely dismissed every second of it.
Since that time, conservatives have consumed countless hours of positive programming… and completely dismissed every second of it.
- Bryan (Nyrhalahotep) Hardbarger
The three of us watched a lot of television, always discussing the programs at length.
- Andrew Neiderman
Pin
I will try to demonstrate by concrete example that television's way of knowing is uncompromisingly hostile to typography's way of knowing; that television's conversations promote incoherence and triviality; that the phrase "serious television" is a contradiction in terms; and that television speaks in only one persistent voice-the voice of entertainment.
- Neil Postman
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
To a nation of grandparents nostalgic for a time when everyone listened to Toscanini on the radio, tired of having to watch people on TV win money for bungee jumping and eating goat rectums, Jeopardy! is sweetly cerebral relief piped in straight from the Eisenhower era, a time capsule from ana age before America dumbed down.
- Ken Jennings
Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs
President Trump is the most ‘entertaining’ president.
Broadcast and satellite television and radio, the global positioning system (GPS), cellphones, and WiFi have all come at the expense of the next generation.
When the television doctors look worried talking about COVID-19, you know it is far worse than what they are saying.
fuzzy black lines hiccuped across the screen.
- James Patterson
Nevermore
Confession: I don't want everybody to be beautiful, not in that unlined, creaseless, symmetrical way. Android beauty, like it comes out of a test tube. Beauty without blemish or mark. Not only do I not identify with such people, I don't believe in them either. I don't even find them attractive. This is what makes watching television so hard: they don't cast actors anymore, only models. When they make a movie of my life, they'd better cast a character actor in the lead. Don't try to tell me I'm not a character.
- Lisa Samson
The Sky Beneath My Feet
Then why have you been talking about her for the past half hour straight?" His friend glanced over at him, a cheeky grin on his face, and the rockstar glared exaggeratedly.
"I have not."
"You definitely have. I missed an entire episode of Cupcake Wars because you've got a crush.
"I have not."
"You definitely have. I missed an entire episode of Cupcake Wars because you've got a crush.
- Andrea D. Smith
Love Factor
La televisión produce imágenes y anula los conceptos, y de este modo atrofia nuestra capacidad de abstracción y con ella toda nuestra capacidad de entender.
- Giovanni Sartori
Homo videns: La sociedad teledirigida
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books.
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books.
- Roald Dahl
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Personality begins where comparison leaves off. Be unique. Be memorable. Be confident. Be proud.
There is nothing more mysterious than a TV set left on in an empty room. It is even stranger than a man talking to himself or a woman standing dreaming at her stove. It is as if another planet is communicating with you. Suddenly the TV reveals itself for what it really is; a video of another world, ultimately addressed to no one at all, delivering its own message.
- Jean Baudrillard
America
Calvin:"It says here that 'religion is the opiate of the masses.'...what do you suppose that means?"
Television: "...it means that Karl Marx hadn't seen anything yet
Television: "...it means that Karl Marx hadn't seen anything yet
- Bill Watterson
Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages, 1985-1995: An Exhibition Catalogue
TV sounds are all the same; there's no difference between the sound of the wind in Northern Ireland and the wind on a Polynesian island.
- Ryu Murakami
Coin Locker Babies
rip the prisons
open
put the
convicts
on
television
open
put the
convicts
on
television
- Norman Mailer
Deaths For The Ladies
A democratic civilization will save itself only if it makes the language of the image into a stimulus for critical reflection — not an invitation for hypnosis.
- Umberto Eco
The Screen Education Reader
I had to start watching [The Real Housewives of New Jersey] every week because, well, my IQ was just too high. I mean seriously up there. What can I tell you? After watching every episode, I am now officially as dumb as that brown, particle-like stuff you find outside and don't want to track inside the house. Rhymes with "wirt", I think.
- Celia Rivenbark
You Don't Sweat Much for a Fat Girl: Observations on Life from the Shallow End of the Pool
Last week, I suggested the candidates take up mushrooms. I’ll be damned if Rick Perry didn’t take me up on that.
So I ask you: whose job is it in this country to wake up comatose parents? Someone better do it soon because knowing television's potential for harm and keeping that knowledge to ourselves instead of sharing it with parents amounts to covering up a land mine on a busy street.
- Jim Trelease
The Read-Aloud Handbook
That day, I started taking an interest in the bar's television. We always kept it on. As the hours slid by in a cacophony of talk I kept watch, throwing in the occasional comment about politicians, bankers, show biz personalities as they appeared on screen. I wasn't being nosy, you understand. Just human.
- Jonathan Gash
The Great California Game
Can I ask you to keep watching us? ... This is only the forty-eighth show. We've got more to reveal. We may have some surprises for you.
- William Harrington
Columbo: The Grassy Knoll
Re-runs are a way of life.
- Anthony T. Hincks
Philo Taylor Farnsworth successfully demonstrated the first television on Sept. 7, 1927.
Since that time, conservatives have consumed countless hours of positive programming… and completely dismissed every second of it.
Since that time, conservatives have consumed countless hours of positive programming… and completely dismissed every second of it.
- Bryan (Nyrhalahotep) Hardbarger
The three of us watched a lot of television, always discussing the programs at length.
- Andrew Neiderman
Pin
I will try to demonstrate by concrete example that television's way of knowing is uncompromisingly hostile to typography's way of knowing; that television's conversations promote incoherence and triviality; that the phrase "serious television" is a contradiction in terms; and that television speaks in only one persistent voice-the voice of entertainment.
- Neil Postman
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
To a nation of grandparents nostalgic for a time when everyone listened to Toscanini on the radio, tired of having to watch people on TV win money for bungee jumping and eating goat rectums, Jeopardy! is sweetly cerebral relief piped in straight from the Eisenhower era, a time capsule from ana age before America dumbed down.
- Ken Jennings
Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs
President Trump is the most ‘entertaining’ president.
Broadcast and satellite television and radio, the global positioning system (GPS), cellphones, and WiFi have all come at the expense of the next generation.
When the television doctors look worried talking about COVID-19, you know it is far worse than what they are saying.