Top 35 Scott Pelley Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “There is no democracy without journalism.”

— Scott Pelley

2. “In a world where everyone is a publisher, no one is an editor. And that is the danger that we face today.”

— Scott Pelley

3. “That’s gossip. Journalism was invented as an antidote to gossip.”

— Scott Pelley

4. “If you’re first, no one will ever remember. If you’re wrong, no one will ever forget.”

— Scott Pelley

5. “Democracies succeed or fail based on their journalism. America is strong because its journalism is strong. That is how democracies work. They’re only as good as the quality of the information that the public possesses and that is where we come in.”

— Scott Pelley

6. “Democracies succeed or fail based on their journalism.”

— Scott Pelley

7. “The dead will be waiting because a crime buried without justice is never laid to rest.”

— Scott Pelley

8. “In the minutia, you will find richness, texture and truth.”

— Scott Pelley

9. “Reflection is the greatest gift writers can give themselves. Write your first draft then put it away – for an hour, a day or overnight. I guarantee when you come back to it, you will see problems you didn’t expect and opportunities you hadn’t imagined.”

— Scott Pelley

10. “Even on a tight deadline, it is often possible to write, reflect and write again. Don’t stop rewriting until your deadline makes you stop.”

— Scott Pelley

11. “Never before in human history has more bad information been available to more people.”

— Scott Pelley

12. “The country is only as strong as its journalism – that’s the way democracies work. The higher the quality of the information, the better informed the electorate is and the better the government runs.”

— Scott Pelley

13. “I wonder at what point do you stop doing what you think is right and you start doing what the majority of the American people want?”

— Scott Pelley

14. “Impeachment is a political act, not a legal one. It is the job of the House of Representatives to decide whether a president should be “impeached,” which is the equivalent of an indictment. If so, then the Senate puts the president on trial to determine whether he should be removed from office.”

— Scott Pelley

15. “The quality of life in America is dependent on the quality of the journalism. Most people don’t realize that, but if you think about it, journalism is one of the pillars on which our society is perched.”

— Scott Pelley

16. “No one wanted to hire me. No newspaper, television station, television network that I worked for ever wanted to hire me.”

— Scott Pelley

17. “Reporting and writing are first and foremost about “seeing.” You can’t write about what you did not see and most of us are terrible at “seeing.” Here are a couple of exercises to practice. In your home, find twenty things you’ve never seen before. I promise you there are two thousand. Also, a few times a day, stop and ask yourself, “If I had to write about this place, or this person, or this moment, what are the unnoticed details that would bring my story to life?”

— Scott Pelley

18. “Science doesn’t care, by and large, what the answers are. It’s only interested in getting the right answer. And journalism should be very much that way.”

— Scott Pelley

19. “Until we take responsibility, instead of taking sides, I believe we risk a new Cold War – this time, a civil war.”

— Scott Pelley

20. “No one ever wanted to hire me. Ever. I’ve never been recruited anywhere. I have beat my head against every wall, at every place that I worked.”

— Scott Pelley

21. “When you are talking to 7 million viewers across the country, man you have got to represent everybody’s views and have got to give them the impression that you are being as honest as you know how to be.”

— Scott Pelley

22. “The problem the cable channels have is they have to fill 24 hours. That’s a terrible thing. We only do that on the biggest stories. The thing is there has happened to be a lot o.”

— Scott Pelley

23. “Not a lot of people watch cable news, they just don’t.”

— Scott Pelley

24. “United We Stand” has never been the secret to America’s success. We are an amalgam of all the peoples of the world. “Divided We Stand” is our strength. With all our diversity, in all our languages and cultures, we should agree on one big idea – each of us belongs, each of us contributes and each of us must be heard. We are all woven into the tapestry of stars. That is a fight worth winning. And a truth worth telling.”

— Scott Pelley

25. “Journalists are getting big stories wrong, over and over again.”

— Scott Pelley

26. “I’m always trying to get those interviews that are impossible to get, because they are the ones that are most interesting to the audience.”

— Scott Pelley

27. “You have to take risks on policy. You can’t be a politician, wringing your hands, worried about what the public opinion polls are saying or worried about the negative attacks. If you believe in something, go fight for it.”

— Scott Pelley

28. “You have to be a political leader, willing to lose an election if you want to do what’s right.”

— Scott Pelley

29. “The American people can always be trusted with the information.”

— Scott Pelley

30. “Relying on one point of view is dangerous, unethical and foolish.”

— Scott Pelley

31. “Enemy of the American people,” in President Trump’s phrase? We are the American people. Journalists bring vitality to the national conversation. We bridge differences, serve public safety, expose corruption, constrain power and give voice to the voiceless. As Madison might say today, Freedom of the Press is the right that guarantees all the others. The stakes are high. Become a journalist. We’d be proud to have you.”

— Scott Pelley

32. “To write well, study writers. I would guide you to Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and to Coming into the Country by John McPhee. McPhee is among the best who craft nonfiction in literary style.”

— Scott Pelley

33. “I believe no one is “self-made.” We are fashioned from the generosity of others.”

— Scott Pelley

34. “We should be profoundly skeptical when one party claims certainty and blames the other for our problems. That’s a con. You know life isn’t like that. That’s why we invented democracies in the first place.”

— Scott Pelley

35. “Deceit is the fault that enables all vices.”

— Scott Pelley