QuoteProject
If you own a gun and have a swimming pool in the yard, the swimming pool is almost 100 times more likely to kill a child than the gun is.
Steven Levitt
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote highlights the surprising risks associated with everyday items compared to commonly feared ones.

Steven Levitt's quote emphasizes that in our perception of danger, we often overlook the real risks posed by common household items, such as swimming pools, when compared to firearms. It encourages us to reassess our understanding of safety and danger by revealing that what we commonly fear may not be as dangerous as we believe, while mundane objects can possess much greater risks.

Themes

RiskSafetyPerceptionFearChild Safety

In practice

Example use cases

In a public health discussion about child safety, this quote can illustrate the need for better awareness regarding common risks.

More from Steven Levitt

Data, I think, is one of the most powerful mechanisms for telling stories. I take a huge pile of data and I try to get it to tell stories.
Steven LevittRead
The key to learning is feedback. It is nearly impossible to learn anything without it.
Steven LevittRead
And knowing what happens on average is a good place to start. By so doing, we insulate ourselves from the tendency to build our thinking - our daily decisions, our laws, our governance - on exceptions and anomalies rather than on reality
Steven LevittRead
Go out and collect data and, instead of having the answer, just look at the data and see if the data tells you anything. When we're allowed to do this with companies, it's almost magical.
Steven LevittRead

Similar quotes

The news and the truth are not the same thing.
Walter LippmannRead
No one shall expel us from the paradise that Cantor has created for us.
David HilbertRead
Truth had run through my fingers. Every drop had escaped.
Virginia WoolfRead
What they could do with 'round here is a good war. What else can you expect with peace running wild all over the place? You know what the trouble with peace is? No organization.
Bertolt BrechtRead
Translation rewrites a foreign text in terms that are intelligible and interesting to readers in the receiving culture. Doing so is akin to committing an act of ethnocentric violence by uprooting the text from the language and culture that gave it life. Translating into current, standard English at once conceals that violence and homogenizes foreign cultures.
Lawrence VenutiRead
Today, in American imperialism, the commodity has reached its most grandiose historical manifestation.
C. L. R. JamesRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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