What a newspaper needs in its news, in its headlines, and on its editorial page is terseness, humor, descriptive power, satire, originality, good literary style, clever condensation, and accuracy, accuracy, accuracy!
Joseph PulitzerRead
It only serves to show what sort of person a man must be who can't even get testimonials. No, no; if a man brings references, it proves nothing; but if he can't, it proves a great deal.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The absence of references reveals more about a person's character than the presence of them.
Joseph Pulitzer suggests that not having testimonials or references speaks volumes about a person's integrity and capabilities. He implies that while references can be arranged or fabricated, the lack of them often indicates deeper truths about an individual's qualities, suggesting potential dishonesty or lack of experience.
Themes
CharacterIntegrityReputationTestimonialsTruth
In practice
Example use cases
In a professional setting, when discussing hiring practices, one might refer to this quote to emphasize the importance of character over references.
More from Joseph Pulitzer
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If you will give the matter a moment's thought, you'll see that memory is the highest faculty of the human mind.
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An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery
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The American people want something terse, forcible, picturesque, striking - something that will arrest their attention, enlist their sympathy, arouse their indignation, stimulate their imagination, convince their reason, awaken their conscience.
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Our Republic and its press will rise or fall together.
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