QuoteProject
I am always surprised people are surprised that people haven't read things.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote highlights the common misconception that everyone has read the same things.

Ta-Nehisi Coates points out the irony in people expressing surprise when others have not read widely recognized texts. This quote suggests that reading experiences and backgrounds vary greatly among individuals, and it serves as a reminder that it is unrealistic to assume a universal exposure to literature or knowledge.

Themes

ReadingEducationKnowledgeLiteratureSurprise

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about education in schools, this quote can emphasize the need for diverse reading materials.

More from Ta-Nehisi Coates

There's a kind of optimism specifically within Christianity about the world - about whose side God is on. Well, I didn't have any of that in my background. I had physicality and chaos.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesRead
We've got in the habit of not really understanding how freedom was in the 19th century, the idea of government of the people in the 19th century. America commits itself to that in theory.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesRead
I never expected my writing to become as popular as it did.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesRead
It's hard for me to view Baltimore outside the context of what Baltimore has always been in my mind: a violent place.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesRead
If I could have anything - you know, and this is across the board for any presidential candidate - I would have a greater acknowledgment of history in our policy and in our affairs.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesRead
You can't make a direct comparison between middle-class African Americans and middle-class white Americans, affluent African Americans and affluent white Americans. The amount of wealth tends to be less.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesRead

Similar quotes

I perceived how that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth except the Scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue.
William TyndaleRead
The purpose of Compulsory Education is to deprive the common people of their commonsense.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
The Talented Tenth of the Negro race must be made leaders of thought and missionaries of culture among their people.
W. E. B. Du BoisRead
I was really lucky because I went to an all-girl school, and that single-sex education really helped me because I really learned to bond with women and to not compete with or compare myself as much because we were all allowed to be ourselves and be unique and kind of have our unique strengths.
Kerry WashingtonRead
For the future, primarily, we must educate people in science, engineering, technology and math.
Buzz AldrinRead
Books are the building blocks of civilization and a people without books are a people without history, a people with no story older than the tales of the oldest man or woman.
Louis L'AmourRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.