A basic element of the American dream is equal access to education as the lubricant of social and economic mobility.

— Nicholas Kristof

America’s education system has become less a ladder of opportunity than a structure to transmit inequity from one generation to the next.

— Nicholas Kristof

During the Arab Spring, I learned all sorts of things from Twitter. I wouldn't necessarily trust that information, but it gave me ideas about questions to ask. You can really learn things from the wisdom of crowds.

— Nicholas Kristof

Every high school and college graduate in America should, I think, have some familiarity with statistics, economics and a foreign language such as Spanish. Religion may not be as indispensable, but the humanities should be a part of our repertory. They may not enrich our wallets, but they do enrich our lives. They civilize us. Furthermore, they provide context.

— Nicholas Kristof

Girls' education is no silver bullet. Iran and Saudi Arabia have both educated girls but refused to empower them, so both remain mired in the past. But when a country educates and unleashes women, those educated women often become force multipliers for good.

— Nicholas Kristof

I think we need to rethink a lot of business skills. In finance, for example, social impact bonds are potentially a way of providing capital for investments that save the public money in a context in which government often doesn't invest in things that would save its money.

— Nicholas Kristof

I took a gap year myself after high school and worked on a farm near Lyon, France. I stayed with the Valley family, picked and packed fruit, and discovered that red wine can be a breakfast drink. That led to further travel as a university student.

— Nicholas Kristof

I've always been interested in public health approaches because it seems to me we have this yearning for silver bullets, and that is not in fact how change comes about. Change comes through silver buckshot - a lot of little things that achieve results. That's a classic public health approach.

— Nicholas Kristof

Maybe our best family trip started at Victoria Falls, which drenches you with spray and is so vast that it makes Niagara Falls seem like a backyard creek. Then we rented a car and made our way to Hwang National Park, which was empty of people but crowded with zebras, giraffes, elephants and more.

— Nicholas Kristof

Moral voices can also become sanctimonious bullies.

— Nicholas Kristof