Michael Kinsley Quotes

United States, Journalist
March 9, 1951

Michael Kinsley is an American political journalist and commentator. Primarily active in print media as both a writer and editor, he also became known to television audiences as a co-host on Crossfire. Kinsley has been a notable participant in the mainstream media's development of online content.

Also known as Commentator

If hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue, piousness is virtue paying tribute to itself.

Michael Kinsley
- Virtue
- Hypocrisy
- Tribute
Americans don't want leadership. They want alchemy.

Michael Kinsley

Among the social sciences, economists are the snobs. Economics, with its numbers and graphs and curves, at least has the coloration and paraphernalia of a hard science. It's not just putting on sandals and trekking out to take notes on some tribe.

Michael Kinsley
- Numbers
- Notes
- Curves
A gaffe is a politician inadvertently telling an inconvenient truth.

Michael Kinsley
There is a deadening conformity in the culture of cyberspace in which we don't intend to participate.

Michael Kinsley
In any event, the proper question isn't what a journalist thinks is relevant but what his or her audience thinks is relevant. Denying people information they would find useful because you think they shouldn't find it useful is censorship, not journalism.

Michael Kinsley
What could be more absurd than the idea that genuine anti-Christian prejudice is a major force in American politics.

Michael Kinsley
- American
- Idea
- Prejudice
The solution when you don't like someone's speech is not to silence that person, or that corporation. It's more and louder speech of your own.

Michael Kinsley
- Person
- Speech
- Solution

One answer is that the towns elected officials thought that the project served a public purpose and that the various subsidies and favors were worth the price. But they may or may not have thought this.

Michael Kinsley
- Purpose
- Thought
- Answer
I have a saying: the scandal isn't what's illegal, the scandal is what's legal.

Michael Kinsley
- Saying
- Legal
- Illegal