Quotation by Daniel J. Boorstin

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published in The Exploring Spirit: America and the World Experience (1976)America and the Image of Europe (1960)Democracy and its Discontents: Reflections on Everyday Americans Random House (1974)"Dissent, Dissension, and the News" The Decline of Radicalism: Reflections on America Today, Random House (1960)The Americans: The Democratic Experience Random House (1973)

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honor (7) death (6) reputations (5) acting (3) actors (3) truth (3) writers and writing (3) love (3) celebrity (3) literature (3)

Celebrity-worship and hero-worship should not be confused. Yet we confuse them every day, and by doing so we come dangerously close to depriving ourselves of all real models. We lose sight of the men and women who do not simply seem great because they are famous but are famous because they are great. We come closer and closer to degrading all fame into notoriety.

Daniel J. Boorstin

Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914), U.S. historian. The Image, ch. 2 (1961).

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