One of our worst traits in journalism is that when we have a narrative in our minds, we often plug in anecdotes that confirm it. Thus we managed to portray President Gerald Ford, a first-rate athlete, as a klutz.
Nicholas KristofRead
The great divide is not between faiths, but one between intolerant zealots of any tradition and the large numbers of decent, peaceful believers likewise found in each tradition.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes that the real division in society is not among different faiths, but between intolerant individuals and the peaceful majority within those faiths.
Nicholas Kristof's quote highlights the idea that the conflicts and divisions we often see in society are not inherent to the different religions or belief systems themselves. Instead, the true divide exists between those who are intolerant and extremist—zealots who misinterpret their traditions—and the vast majority of individuals who practice their faith peacefully and decently, showing that coexistence is possible regardless of belief differences.
Themes
FaithIntolerancePeaceBeliefsZealots
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in interfaith dialogues to promote understanding and tolerance.
More from Nicholas Kristof
All quotes →A basic element of the American dream is equal access to education as the lubricant of social and economic mobility.
Nicholas KristofRead
Worrying about bills, food, or other problems leaves less capacity to think ahead or to exert self-discipline. So, poverty imposes a mental tax.
Nicholas KristofRead
Most moms and dads, they want to be good moms and dads. But it's an incredibly hard job when you are stressed out, when you are poor, when your life is in chaos. And giving them some of the tools to be better parents, to whittle away at that parenting gap, gives those kids a much better starting point in life.
Nicholas KristofRead
Since the end of the 1970s, something has gone profoundly wrong in America. Inequality has soared. Educational progress slowed. Incarceration rates quintupled. Family breakdown accelerated. Median household income stagnated.
Nicholas KristofRead
The news media's silence, particularly television news, is reprehensible. If we knew as much about Darfur as we do about Michael Jackson, we might be able to stop these things from continuing.
Nicholas KristofRead
Similar quotes
The first act of violence that patriarchy demands of males is not violence toward women. Instead patriarchy demands of all males that they engage in acts of psychic self-mutilation, that they kill off the emotional parts of themselves. If an individual is not successful in emotionally crippling himself, he can count on patriarchal men to enact rituals of power that will assault his self-esteem.
Bell HooksRead
We must not inquire too curiously into motives. they are apt to become feeble in the utterance: the aroma is mixed with the grosser air. We must keep the germinating grain away from the light.
George EliotRead
How can we live in harmony? First we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God.
Thomas AquinasRead
If any one idea can justly be called the American idea, it is that a child's circumstances at birth should not determine the station in life that that child will occupy as an adult.
Steven WeinbergRead
His sister liked to think of herself as Lord Tywin with teats, but she was wrong. Their father had been as relentless and implacable as a glacier, where Cercei was all wildfire, especially when thwarted.
George R. R. MartinRead
Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunder-storm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols.
Thomas MannRead