Quotessence
Home / Authors / Nicholas D. Kristof
Nicholas D. Kristof

Nicholas D. Kristof Quotes

Journalist

Filter quotes by topic

AllLiteraturePeopleIfsWorldYearsCountryPovertyShouldDarfurIssues

Famous Nicholas D. Kristof Quotes

“You could perhaps better tell the story of a place by writing of a tiny village as a sort of prism into the bigger issues the culture was facing. It struck me as a better way to learn about a place, or at least a different way, than just going to interview the president. So I have often tried to tell the story of a place through people there. But I'm just amazed.”

PeopleWayWritingDifferentStoriesCulturePresidentIssuesBiggerTinyDifferent WaysInterviewsVillageAmazedBetter WaysPrisms
Author:Nicholas D. Kristof
Create image

“More girls were killed in the last 50 years, precisely because they were girls, than men killed in all the wars in the 20th century. More girls are killed in this routine gendercide in any one decade than people were slaughtered in all the genocides of the 20th century. The equivalent of 5 jumbo jets worth of women die in labor each day... life time risk of maternal death is 1,000x higher in a poor country than in the west. That should be an international scandal.”

PeopleMenShouldYearsWarCountryLastsDiesGirlPoorRiskCenturyHigherLaborWestInternationalDecadesEach DayRoutineGenocide20th CenturyScandalJetLife TimeDay LifePoor Countries
Author:Nicholas D. Kristof
Create image

“When anesthesia was developed, it was for many decades routinely withheld from women giving birth, since women were "supposed" to suffer. One of the few societies to take a contrary view was the Huichol tribe in Mexico. The Huichol believed that the pain of childbirth should be shared, so the mother would hold on to a string tied to her husband's testicles. With each painful contraction, she would give the string a yank so that the man could share the burden. Surely if such a mechanism were more widespread, injuries in childbirth would garner more attention.”

IfsMenGivingShouldPainMotherSufferingViewsAttentionShareBirthHusbandEmpathyPainfulBurdenDecadesContraryInjuryStringsMechanismMexicoTiedWomens RightsTribesChildbirthGiving BirthContractionsTesticlesAnesthesia
Author:Nicholas D. Kristof
Create image

“So let us be clear about this up front: We hope to recruit you to join an incipient movement to emancipate women and fight global poverty by unlocking women's power as economic catalysts. That is the process under way - not a drama of victimization but of empowerment, the kind that transforms bubbly teenage girls from brothel slaves into successful businesswomen. This is a story of transformation. It is change that is already taking place, and change that can accelerate if you'll just open your heart and join in.”

IfsWayHeartKindStoriesGirlFightingProcessPovertySuccessfulClearEconomicFrontsMovementDramaEmpowermentTransformationSlaveTeenageCatalystAccelerateRecruitOpen Your HeartTeenage GirlVictimizationBrothelsUnlockingGlobal Poverty
Author:Nicholas D. Kristof
Create image

“American airstrikes...create risks, especially if our intelligence there is rusty. The crucial step, and the one we should apply diplomatic pressure to try to achieve, is for Maliki to step back and share power with Sunnis while accepting decentralization of government. If Maliki does all that, it may still be possible to save Iraq. Without that, airstrikes would be a further waste in a land in which we've already squandered far, far too much.”

IfsShouldTryingMayDoeStillsGovernmentWould BeAcceptingStepsToo MuchRiskShareLandAchieveMilitaryWastePressureIraqCrucialDiplomaticDecentralization
Author:Nicholas D. Kristof
Create image

“Conservatives, who have presumed that the key to preventing AIDS is abstinence-only education, and liberals, who have focused on distribution of condoms, should both note that the intervention that has tested most cost-effective in Africa is neither... Secular bleeding hearts and religious bleeding hearts will have to forge a common cause.”

ShouldHeartCausesReligiousCommonKeysCostNotesFocusedAidsSecularPhilanthropyTestedDistributionInterventionBleedingPreventingAbstinenceCondomBleeding Heart
Author:Nicholas D. Kristof
Create image