A best-seller was a book which somehow sold well because it was selling well.
Daniel J. Boorstin

A sign of celebrity is that his name is often worth more than his services.
Daniel J. Boorstin

A wonderful thing about a book, in contrast to a computer screen, is that you can take it to bed with you.
Daniel J. Boorstin

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.
Daniel J. Boorstin

As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism. The beloved Echo of our ancestors, the virgin America, has been abandoned. We have fallen in love with our own image, with images of our making, which turn out to be images of ourselves.
Daniel J. Boorstin

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

Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know.
Daniel J. Boorstin

Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be.
Daniel J. Boorstin

Human models are more vivid and more persuasive than explicit moral commands.
Daniel J. Boorstin

I write to discover what I think. After all, the bars aren't open that early.
Daniel J. Boorstin


I've learned any fool can write a bad ad, but it takes a real genius to keep his hands off a good one.
Daniel J. Boorstin

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

Nothing is really real unless it happens on television.
Daniel J. Boorstin

Reading is like the sex act - done privately, and often in bed.
Daniel J. Boorstin

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.
Daniel J. Boorstin

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

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

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

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

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