"First Rough Draft of History"
In April 1963, Graham delivered a speech to the overseas correspondents of Newsweek in London:
- "So let us today drudge on about our inescapably impossible task of providing every week a first rough draft of history that will never really be completed about a world we can never really understand…"
The phrase " first rough draft of history" has entered the vernacular. While this quote may have been popularized by Graham in this speech, and the phrase is often credited to him in this speech, these words are not original with him, nor with this speech, the phrase having been used repeatedly in the Post in the 1940s, and by Graham in the 1950s, with the earliest citation being 20 years, by Alan Barth in 1943, writing "News is only the first rough draft of history," and earlier expressions of similar sentiments dating at least to the 1900s (decade) – see Wikiquote article for details.
Read more about this topic: Phil Graham
Famous quotes containing the words draft of history, rough, draft and/or history:
“News is the first rough draft of history.”
—Philip L. Graham (1915–1963)
“Under the greenwood tree
Who loves to lie with me,
And turn his merry note
Unto the sweet bird’s throat,
Come hither, come hither, come hither!
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“It is crystal clear to me that if Arabs put down a draft resolution blaming Israel for the recent earthquake in Iran it would probably have a majority, the U.S. would veto it and Britain and France would abstain.”
—Amos Oz (b. 1939)
“In nature, all is useful, all is beautiful. It is therefore beautiful, because it is alive, moving, reproductive; it is therefore useful, because it is symmetrical and fair. Beauty will not come at the call of a legislature, nor will it repeat in England or America its history in Greece. It will come, as always, unannounced, and spring up between the feet of brave and earnest men.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)