192 Quotes by Nicholas D. Kristof

In general, talking about human rights tends to be very persuasive for people who care about human rights.

Women aren't the problem but the solution. The plight of girls is no more a tragedy than an opportunity.

It is better to inconsistently save some lives than to consistently save none.

If one is talking to a finance minister of a poor country, moral arguments tend not to get very far. But if you can argue that their country is going to grow 2 percent faster per year if they can just harness the power of the female half of the population more effectively, that is an argument they consider.

If the U.S. wants to help people in tsunami-hit countries like Sri Lanka and Indonesia - not to mention other poor countries in Africa - there's one step that would cost us nothing and would save hundreds of thousands of lives. It would be to allow DDT in malaria-ravaged countries.

In much of the world, the most dangerous thing a woman can do is become pregnant.

The way you get leaders to care about issues of conscience is to apply political pressure. It's less a question of persuading leaders directly and more trying to build a social movement that holds their feet to the fire.

If only women are talking about women's rights, then the issue has failed from the start. If you think about the Holocaust, that wasn't just a Jewish issue. Civil rights weren't just a black issue.

The greatest threat to extremism isn't drones firing missiles, but girls reading books.