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Our society finds truth too strong a medicine to digest undiluted. In its purest form, truth is not a polite tap on the shoulder; it is a howling reproach.
Ted Koppel
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Truth can be difficult to accept and often confronts us harshly.

Ted Koppel's quote reflects on the nature of truth in society, suggesting that people often struggle to accept it when presented in its raw form. Rather than being a gentle reminder, truth can be a harsh criticism that challenges our beliefs and behaviors, indicating our discomfort with facing it directly.

Themes

TruthSocietyMedicineDiscomfortReproach

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a discussion about the importance of honesty in journalism.

More from Ted Koppel

Emotions get in the way but they don't pay me to start crying at the loss of 269 lives. They pay me to put some perspective on the situation.
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My function is, as objectively and accurately as I can, to present reality to people out there, and doing that as quickly as we do is quite difficult enough, thank you.
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Set your sights beyond what you can see. There is true majesty in the concept of an unseen power which can neither be measured nor weighed.
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You can almost measure where you are in life by the degree to which you have begun looking back rather than ahead.
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People shouldn't expect the mass media to do investigative stories. That job belongs to the 'fringe' media.
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There's harmony and inner peace to be found in following a moral compass that points in the same direction regardless of fashion or trend.
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