Jeremy Paxman Quotes

#1. I voted against Gerald Nabarro in my first general election, but my defiance made no difference. If you had put a Conservative rosette on a mustachioed hamster, it would have been elected.

Jeremy Paxman

#2. ... instead of trying to grapple with the implications of the story of empire, the British seem to have decided just to ignore it... the most corrosive part of this amnesia is a sense that because the nation is not what it was, it can never be anything again.

Jeremy Paxman

#3. The idea of a tax on the ownership of a television belongs in the 1950s. Why not tax people for owning a washing machine to fund the manufacture of Persil?

Jeremy Paxman

#4. Television bosses should stop insulting the public's intelligence by assuming we are all idiots.

Jeremy Paxman

#5. At last someone takes me seriously.

Jeremy Paxman

#6. It's not just politicians. Any spokesman for a vested interest is well schooled in how to say what it is they wish to say, which may bear no relation at all to what you've asked them.

Jeremy Paxman

#7. I hate the word 'sneering', I can't help the way my face looks.

Jeremy Paxman

#8. Watching TV is the most popular leisure activity in Britain. I find that very depressing.

Jeremy Paxman

#9. Has there ever been a visitor to Ludlow who hasn't wished they lived there?

Jeremy Paxman

#10. At work people are expected to be at the beck and call of employers all the time. You have blackberries and other things, and they just don't leave you alone. People have less time just to drop into an art gallery.

Jeremy Paxman

#11. I got fed up of listening to bollocks

Jeremy Paxman

#12. The English approach to ideas is not to kill them, but to let them die of neglect.

Jeremy Paxman

#13. The cure for cynicism is simply to engage honestly.

Jeremy Paxman

#14. Scepticism is a necessary and vital part of the journalist's toolkit. But when scepticism becomes cynicism it can close off thought and block the search for truth.

Jeremy Paxman

#15. It seems to me that the way to remove people's cynicism is, when asked a straight question, to give a straight answer.

Jeremy Paxman

#16. I'm afraid I tend to be thinking about things and not paying sufficient attention to one's posture, deportment and general cast of face.

Jeremy Paxman

#17. I've always felt myself to be an outsider. I've always felt awkward.

Jeremy Paxman

#18. I find it odd that people take me seriously.

Jeremy Paxman

#19. It would be unforgivable to use the role I have, such as it is, to inflict my incoherent, half-baked view of the world on people. That would be illegitimate and unacceptable and I should be fired.

Jeremy Paxman

#20. I have not a clue why they sent it to me. As far as I know I have not got a reputation as a receiver of stolen goods.

Jeremy Paxman

#21. Sharing holiday snaps on social media is an act of arrogant vanity.

Jeremy Paxman

#22. I've spent my whole life being told I have a face like a horse. You are just what you are, aren't you?

Jeremy Paxman

#23. The defining problem of contemporary television is trust: Can you believe what you see on television, does television treat people fairly, is it healthy for society?

Jeremy Paxman

#24. I've always thought you have to live life looking forwards, not backwards. I've had no interest at all in who my ancestors are.

Jeremy Paxman