Printing Press Quotes

• The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.

  Ben Bernanke

  Technology, Government, Wish

  "Deflation: Making Sure "It" Doesn't Happen Here". Governor Ben Bernanke's remarks before the National Economists Club in Washington, D.C., www.federalreserve.gov. November 21, 2002.

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• Ink is the blood of the printing-press.

  John Milton

  Blood, Ink, Printing

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• What gunpowder did for war the printing press has done for the mind.

  Wendell Phillips

  War, Book, Reading

  Wendell Phillips (1864). “Speeches, Lectures, and Letters”, p.40

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• And so it is to the printing press--to the recorder of mans deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news-- that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.

  John F. Kennedy

  Independent, Men, Looks

  Address to the American Newspaper Publishers, delivered 27 April 1961, Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York

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• The invention of the printing press was one of the most important events in human history.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Important Events, Printing, Invention

  "Ha-Joon Chang: The net isn't as important as we think". Interview with William Skidelsky, www.theguardian.com. August 28, 2010.

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• The printing press is the greatest weapon in the armoury of the modern commander.

  T. E. Lawrence

  Arabia, Weapons, Modern

  T. E. Lawrence (2015). “The Collected Works of Lawrence of Arabia (Unabridged): Seven Pillars of Wisdom + The Mint + The Evolution of a Revolt + Complete Letters (Including Translations of The Odyssey and The Forest Giant)”, p.766, e-artnow

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• Since the printing press came into being, poetry has ceased to be the delight of the whole community of man; it has become the amusement and delight of the few.

  John Masefield

  Men, Poetry, Community

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• We become, after the arrival of the printing press in general, more attentive more attuned to contemplative ways of thinking.

  Nicholas G. Carr

  Thinking, Way, Printing

  Source: bigthink.com

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• Every technology, including the printing press, comes at some price.

  Bill Keller

  Technology, Printing, Including

  Interview with Scott Raab, www.esquire.com. June 6, 2011.

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• The printing press is either the greatest blessing or the greatest curse of modern times, sometimes one forgets which it is.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Funny, Book, Reading

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• You can't have an industrial revolution, you can't have democracies, you can't have populations who can govern themselves until you have literacy. The printing press simply unlocked literacy.

  Howard Rheingold

  Democracy, Revolution, Population

  The Frontline Interview, www.pbs.org. June 15, 1995.

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• If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Printed Books, Printed Word, Offending

  Benjamin Franklin (1945). “Autobiographical writings”

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• The printing press was at first mistaken for an engine of immortality by everybody except Shakespeare.

  Marshall McLuhan

  Firsts, Immortality, Printing

  Marshall McLuhan, W. Terrence Gordon, Elena Lamberti, Dominique Scheffel-Dunand (2011). “The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man”, p.230, University of Toronto Press

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• Basically, books were a luxury item before the printing press.

  Nate Silver

  Book, Luxury, Printing

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• The Protestant Reformation had a lot to do with the printing press, where Martin Luther's theses were reproduced about 250,000 times. And so you had widespread dissemination of ideas that hadn't circulated in the mainstream before.

  Nate Silver

  Ideas, Printing, Luther

  "'Signal' And 'Noise': Prediction As Art And Science". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. October 10, 2012.

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• Blessings be the inventor of the alphabet, pen and printing press! Life would be -- to me in all events -- a terrible thing without books.

  Lucy Maud Montgomery

  Book, Blessing, Events

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• Break up the printing presses and you break up rebellion.

  Dudley Nichols

  Break Up, Uprising, Rebellion

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• Nothing could be more misleading than the idea that computer technology introduced the age of information. The printing press began that age, and we have not been free of it since.

  Neil Postman

  Technology, Ideas, Age

  "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business". Book by Neil Postman, 1985.

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• When we developed written language, we significantly increased our functional memory and our ability to share insights and knowledge across time and space. The same thing happened with the invention of the printing press, the telegraph, and the radio.

  Jamais Cascio

  Memories, Space, Radio

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• The digital revolution is far more significant than the invention of writing or even of printing.

  Douglas Engelbart

  Writing, Technology, Digital Revolution

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• In one sense, the Internet is like the discovery of the printing press, only it's very different. The printing press gave us access to recorded knowledge. The Internet gives us access, not just to knowledge, but to the intelligence contained in people's crania, access to the intelligence of people on a global basis.

  Don Tapscott

  Discovery, People, Giving

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• TV is bigger than any story it reports. It's the greatest teaching tool since the printing press.

  Fred W. Friendly

  Teacher, Teaching, Tools

  "Fred Friendly's Faith In The Constitution" by Nat Hentoff, www.washingtonpost.com. March 14, 1998.

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• Humans have always used our intelligence and creativity to improve our existence. After all, we invented the wheel, discovered how to make fire, invented the printing press and found a vaccine for polio.

  Naveen Jain

  Creativity, Fire, Polio Vaccine

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• The printing press had a very liberatory effect that meant individuals - small groups could produce radical pamphlets - could use it for organizing.

  Noam Chomsky

  Groups, Use, Individual

  Interview with Jegan Vincent de Paul, chomsky.info. August 15, 2012.

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• It is production that creates purchasing power, not the printing press!

  Peter Schiff

  Printing, Purchasing Power, Productions

  "The Fault Lines Emerge". www.321gold.com. March 28, 2009.

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