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
Wilderness trails constitute a rare space in America marked by economic diversity. Lawyers and construction workers get bitten by the same mosquitoes and sip from the same streams; there are none of the usual signals about socioeconomic status, for most hikers are in shorts and a T-shirt and enveloped by an aroma that would make a skunk queasy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Wilderness trails bring people of different economic backgrounds together in a shared experience of nature.
In this quote, Nicholas Kristof highlights how wilderness trails create a unique environment where social and economic distinctions fade away. In the wild, individuals from diverse professions and backgrounds share the same experiences, facing the same challenges and enjoying the same beauty of nature, thus emphasizing the unifying power of the outdoors beyond societal labels and statuses.
Themes
WildernessNatureEconomic DiversityHikingShared Experience
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used during a speech at a nature conservation event to highlight the importance of preserving wilderness areas.
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
People don't want to go to the dump and have a picnic, they want to go out to a beautiful place and enjoy their day. And so I think our job is to try to take the environment, take what the good Lord has given us, and expand upon it or enhance it, without destroying it.
Jack NicklausRead
Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn, and to sing at dusk, was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.
Terry Tempest WilliamsRead
Gardening is not a rational act.
Margaret AtwoodRead
April ... hath put a spirit of youth in everything.
William ShakespeareRead
Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.
Leonardo Da VinciRead
This Forest eats itself and lives forever.
Barbara KingsolverRead