Jeremy Paxman Quotes

I have neither the learning nor the experience to know whether the doomsayers are right about the human causes of climate change. But I am willing to acknowledge that people who know a lot more than I do may be right when they claim that it is the consequence of our own behaviour. I assume that this is why the BBC?s coverage of the issue abandoned the pretence of impartiality long ago.

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.

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

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

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?

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.

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?

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

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

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

The cure for cynicism is simply to engage honestly.

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

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

I got fed up of listening to bollocks

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.

At last someone takes me seriously.

[Cycling] is easily the quickest way around central London, faster than bus, Tube or taxi. You can predict precisely how long every journey will take, regardless of traffic jams, Tube strikes or leaves on the line. It provides excellent exercise. It does not pollute the atmosphere. It does not clog up the streets.

... 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.

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

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.