--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Suppose that a man leaps out of a burning…" description: "\"“Suppose that a man leaps out of a burning building—as my dear friend and colleague Jeff Goldberg sat and said to my face over a table at La Tomate in ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cc5/christopher-hitchens-117_agriculture_suppose-that-a-man-leaps-out-of-a-burnin_1687465.jpg" --- # Suppose that a man leaps out of a burning building—as my… ![“Suppose that a man leaps out of a burning building—as my dear friend and colleague Jeff Goldberg sat and said to my face over a table at La Tomate in Washington not two years ago—and lands on a bystander in the street below. Now, make the burning building be Europe, and the luckless man underneath…” quote by Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cc5/christopher-hitchens-117_agriculture_suppose-that-a-man-leaps-out-of-a-burnin_1687465.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cc5/christopher-hitchens-117_agriculture_suppose-that-a-man-leaps-out-of-a-burnin_1687465.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cc5/christopher-hitchens-117_agriculture_suppose-that-a-man-leaps-out-of-a-burnin_1687465.jpg) > ““Suppose that a man leaps out of a burning building—as my dear friend and colleague Jeff Goldberg sat and said to my face over a table at La Tomate in Washington not two years ago—and lands on a bystander in the street below. Now, make the burning building be Europe, and the luckless man underneath be the Palestinian Arabs. Is this a historical injustice? Has the man below been made a victim, with infinite cause of complaint and indefinite justification for violent retaliation? My own reply would be a provisional 'no,' but only on these conditions. The man leaping from the burning building must still make such restitution as he can to the man who broke his fall, and must not pretend that he never even landed on him. And he must base his case on the singularity and uniqueness of the original leap. It can't, in other words, be 'leap, leap, leap' for four generations and more. The people underneath cannot be expected to tolerate leaping on this scale and of this duration, if you catch my drift. In Palestine, tread softly, for you tread on their dreams. And do not tell the Palestinians that they were never fallen upon and bruised in the first place. Do not shame yourself with the cheap lie that they were told by their leaders to run away. Also, stop saying that nobody knew how to cultivate oranges in Jaffa until the Jews showed them how. 'Making the desert bloom'—one of Yvonne's stock phrases—makes desert dwellers out of people who were the agricultural superiors of the Crusaders.”” [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The metaphor warns against collective blame for historical injustices, urging nuanced responsibility and empathy. **In simple terms:** Avoid blaming entire groups for past harms. Key Takeaway Recognize individual responsibility within history. Themes history justice empathy responsibility Mood serious reflective Type political philosophical When to use this quote - conflict zones - policy making - education - media discourse Key Concepts political ethics collective memory Questions to Reflect On - How can societies address past wrongs without perpetuating cycles? - What role does empathy play in reconciliation? A Different Perspective Simplistic narratives can inflame tensions. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Agriculture](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/agriculture/) [Analogies](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/analogies/) [Colonialism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/colonialism/) [Crusades](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/crusades/) [Dear friend](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dear-friend/) [Europe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/europe/) [First place](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/first-place/) [Four generations](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/four-generations/) [Friendship](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/friendship/) [History](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/history/) [Injustice](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/injustice/) [Israel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/israel/) [Israeli palestinian conflict](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/israeli-palestinian-conflict/) [Jews](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/jews/) [Palestine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/palestine/) [Palestinians](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/palestinians/) [Victims](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/victims/) [Washington](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/washington/) ## Related quotes > [I'm not going to tell the Palestinians how to arrange themselves. If they want to have their own entity and their own parliament as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/naftali-bennett/i-m-not-going-to-tell-the-palestinians-how-to-arrange-themselves-if/) [Naftali Bennett](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/naftali-bennett/) > [In the American Jewish community, there is little willingness to face the fact that the Palestinian Arabs have suffered a monstrous historical injustice .…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/noam-chomsky/in-the-american-jewish-community-there-is-little-willingness-to-face/) [Noam Chomsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/noam-chomsky/) > [And it also became clear that these conditions of inequality and historical injustice have given rise to a feeling of hate in the world…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ulrich-beck/and-it-also-became-clear-that-these-conditions-of-inequality-and/) [Ulrich Beck](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ulrich-beck/) > [“Identity politics is universally attractive because it enables failures and weaknesses to be spun as the products of oppression and historical injustice. Personal responsibility…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/milo-yiannopoulos/identity-politics-is-universally-attractive-because-it-enables/) [Milo Yiannopoulos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/milo-yiannopoulos/) > [the miserable specimens who call themselves ' liberals ' are really conservatives: they're desperately even hysterically defending a welfare-warfare kleptocracy that is now at…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/l-neil-smith/the-miserable-specimens-who-call-themselves-liberals-are-really/) [L. Neil Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/l-neil-smith/) > [The two mistakes that come to mind are people who introduce a flood of characters in the first few pages. Where the reader has…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-grisham/the-two-mistakes-that-come-to-mind-are-people-who-introduce-a-flood/) [John Grisham](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-grisham/) > [It's not so weird that four generations are living together under the same roof and trying to make it work. It's how a lot…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martha-plimpton/it-s-not-so-weird-that-four-generations-are-living-together-under-the/) [Martha Plimpton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martha-plimpton/) > [Texas is my mind's country, that place I most want to understand and record and preserve. Four generations of my people sleep in its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/larry-l-king/texas-is-my-mind-s-country-that-place-i-most-want-to-understand-and/) [Larry L. King](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/larry-l-king/) > [Like a lot of us, sometimes I'm preaching to the choir, and sometimes my voice doesn't even get heard at all. Sometimes I think…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wayne-dyer/like-a-lot-of-us-sometimes-i-m-preaching-to-the-choir-and-sometimes/) [Wayne Dyer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wayne-dyer/) > [“Not surprisingly, there's nothing to do at the Pentagon except start a war. Tourist aren't even allowed to take photos with the building in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-beatty/not-surprisingly-there-s-nothing-to-do-at-the-pentagon-except-start-a/) [Paul Beatty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-beatty/) > [Being in the public eye is easy for me because I come from a family of four generations of teachers, so I'm used to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/svetlana-alexievich/being-in-the-public-eye-is-easy-for-me-because-i-come-from-a-family/) [Svetlana Alexievich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/svetlana-alexievich/) > [It takes four generations to recover from every act of violence.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rebecca-adamson/it-takes-four-generations-to-recover-from-every-act-of-violence/) [Rebecca Adamson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rebecca-adamson/) > [Among the upper classes, especially three or four generations ago, men and women had separate bedrooms. That's just the way it was.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gyles-brandreth/among-the-upper-classes-especially-three-or-four-generations-ago-men/) [Gyles Brandreth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gyles-brandreth/) > [“But one of them had on an Army medal, a service medal, something like that. Do you know all of Chad's Army friends?" Radke…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sara-paretsky/but-one-of-them-had-on-an-army-medal-a-service-medal-something-like/) [Sara Paretsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sara-paretsky/) > [I knew I could never match my father as a violinist, and there were already four generations of outstanding cellists in the family.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leonard-slatkin/i-knew-i-could-never-match-my-father-as-a-violinist-and-there-were/) [Leonard Slatkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leonard-slatkin/) ## More by Christopher Hitchens > [“The spirit of our accurate and exact philosophy is outraged by conclusions that contradict each other so glaringly.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/the-spirit-of-our-accurate-and-exact-philosophy-is-outraged-by/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [“Many governments employ torture but this was the first time that the element of Saturnalia and pornography in the process had been made so…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/many-governments-employ-torture-but-this-was-the-first-time-that-the/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [ It's \[Los Angeles\] mostly full of nonsense and delusion and egomania. They think they'll be young and beautiful forever, even though most of them… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-s-los-angeles-mostly-full-of-nonsense-and-delusion-and-egomania/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [To be against rationalization is not the same as to be opposed to reasoning.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/to-be-against-rationalization-is-not-the-same-as-to-be-opposed-to/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [ \[Religion\] attacks us in our deepest integrity - the core of our self-respect. Religion says that we would not know right from wrong, we… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/religion-attacks-us-in-our-deepest-integrity-the-core-of-our-self/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [“In the very recent past, we have seen the Church of Rome befouled by its complicity with the unpardonable sin of child rape, or,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/in-the-very-recent-past-we-have-seen-the-church-of-rome-befouled-by/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [It's surprising to me how many of my friends send Christmas cards, or holiday cards, including my atheist and secular friends.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-s-surprising-to-me-how-many-of-my-friends-send-christmas-cards-or/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [Suppose there were groups of secularists at hospitals who went round the terminally ill and urged them to adopt atheism: 'Don't be a mug…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/suppose-there-were-groups-of-secularists-at-hospitals-who-went-round/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [There are, after all, atheists who say they wish the fable were true but are unable to suspend the requisite disbelief, or who have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/there-are-after-all-atheists-who-say-they-wish-the-fable-were-true/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [“It isn’t so long since a test of Anglican orthodoxy was applied to anyone seeking to study or teach at Oxford and Cambridge universities.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-isn-t-so-long-since-a-test-of-anglican-orthodoxy-was-applied-to/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [Gullibility and credulity are considered undesireable qualities in every department of human life - except religion ... Why are we praised by godly men…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/gullibility-and-credulity-are-considered-undesireable-qualities-in/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [It's much worse to see a woman drunk than a man: I don't know quite why this is true but it just is. Don't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-s-much-worse-to-see-a-woman-drunk-than-a-man-i-don-t-know-quite/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [It's true that obscenity is a matter of taste and in the eye of the beholder.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-s-true-that-obscenity-is-a-matter-of-taste-and-in-the-eye-of-the/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [I worked out early on to give up things I couldn't do well at all.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/i-worked-out-early-on-to-give-up-things-i-couldn-t-do-well-at-all/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [Writing is what's important to me, and anything that helps me do that - or enhances and prolongs and deepens and sometimes intensifies argument…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/writing-is-what-s-important-to-me-and-anything-that-helps-me-do-that/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Explore all 1,241 Christopher Hitchens quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) ## More Agriculture quotes > [Advances in technology will continue to reach far into every sector of our economy. Future job and economic growth in industry, defense, transportation, agriculture,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-bond/advances-in-technology-will-continue-to-reach-far-into-every-sector/) [Christopher Bond](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-bond/) > [To husband is to use with care, to keep, to save, to make last, to conserve. Old usage tells us that there is a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/to-husband-is-to-use-with-care-to-keep-to-save-to-make-last-to/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) > [As the first Member of Congress from western Washington to serve on the House Agriculture Committee in over 50 years, I am proud to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rick-larsen/as-the-first-member-of-congress-from-western-washington-to-serve-on/) [Rick Larsen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rick-larsen/) > [Conventional agriculture has never succeeded in feeding the world, and it's never produced anything good to eat. For the future, we need to look…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dan-barber/conventional-agriculture-has-never-succeeded-in-feeding-the-world-and/) [Dan Barber](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dan-barber/) > [I would say my fraternity was nothing but a bunch of farm boys; we weren't really in the whole fraternity scene, but yeah, that's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/luke-bryan/i-would-say-my-fraternity-was-nothing-but-a-bunch-of-farm-boys-we/) [Luke Bryan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/luke-bryan/) > [I grew up in Italy, and our country is a country of great agriculture and food produce. It wasn't like I was urban and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabella-rossellini/i-grew-up-in-italy-and-our-country-is-a-country-of-great-agriculture/) [Isabella Rossellini](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabella-rossellini/) > [Farmers, get out your sense of humor. Congress meets to relieve you again next week.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/will-rogers/farmers-get-out-your-sense-of-humor-congress-meets-to-relieve-you/) [Will Rogers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/will-rogers/) > [Because Iran understands Afghanistan far better than Americans do, making Iran a partner in a long-term effort to transform Afghan agriculture makes sense.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-kinzer/because-iran-understands-afghanistan-far-better-than-americans-do/) [Stephen Kinzer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-kinzer/) > [Sara Scherr and Jeff McNeely have given us a thoughtful, sensible book about a topic of great importance to the world. There is no…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ismail-serageldin/sara-scherr-and-jeff-mcneely-have-given-us-a-thoughtful-sensible-book/) [Ismail Serageldin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ismail-serageldin/) > [People want development, modern thinking. They want to encourage and support research in agriculture and other fields.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sharad-pawar/people-want-development-modern-thinking-they-want-to-encourage-and/) [Sharad Pawar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sharad-pawar/) > [Growing corn, which from a biological perspective had always been a process of capturing sunlight to turn into food, has in no small measure…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/growing-corn-which-from-a-biological-perspective-had-always-been-a/) [Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/) > [When politicians talk of loan waiver, they are accepting that agriculture is not economically viable. They are giving a wrong signal that farming is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/m-s-swaminathan/when-politicians-talk-of-loan-waiver-they-are-accepting-that/) [M. S. Swaminathan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/m-s-swaminathan/) > [Nitrogen-based fertilizers, which came into wide use after World War II, helped prompt the agricultural revolution that has allowed the Earth to feed its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tatiana-schlossberg/nitrogen-based-fertilizers-which-came-into-wide-use-after-world-war/) [Tatiana Schlossberg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tatiana-schlossberg/) > [Agriculture is one economic activity that does not obey the laws of demand and supply.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-kenneth-galbraith/agriculture-is-one-economic-activity-that-does-not-obey-the-laws-of/) [John Kenneth Galbraith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-kenneth-galbraith/) > [More than a mere alternative strategy, regenerative agriculture represents a fundamental shift in our culture’s relationship to nature.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-eisenstein/more-than-a-mere-alternative-strategy-regenerative-agriculture/) [Charles Eisenstein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-eisenstein/) [Browse all 889 Agriculture quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/agriculture/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Suppose that a man leaps out of a burning building—as my dear friend and colleague Jeff Goldberg sat and said to my face over a table at La Tomate in Washington not two years ago—and lands on a bystander in the street below. Now, make the burning building be Europe, and the luckless man underneath be the Palestinian Arabs. Is this a historical injustice? Has the man below been made a victim, with infinite cause of complaint and indefinite justification for violent retaliation? My own reply would be a provisional 'no,' but only on these conditions. The man leaping from the burning building must still make such restitution as he can to the man who broke his fall, and must not pretend that he never even landed on him. And he must base his case on the singularity and uniqueness of the original leap. It can't, in other words, be 'leap, leap, leap' for four generations and more. The people underneath cannot be expected to tolerate leaping on this scale and of this duration, if you catch my drift. In Palestine, tread softly, for you tread on their dreams. And do not tell the Palestinians that they were never fallen upon and bruised in the first place. Do not shame yourself with the cheap lie that they were told by their leaders to run away. Also, stop saying that nobody knew how to cultivate oranges in Jaffa until the Jews showed them how. 'Making the desert bloom'—one of Yvonne's stock phrases—makes desert dwellers out of people who were the agricultural superiors of the Crusaders.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/suppose-that-a-man-leaps-out-of-a-burning-building-as-my-dear-friend/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Agriculture" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/suppose-that-a-man-leaps-out-of-a-burning-building-as-my-dear-friend/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cc5/christopher-hitchens-117_agriculture_suppose-that-a-man-leaps-out-of-a-burnin_1687465.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cc5/christopher-hitchens-117_agriculture_suppose-that-a-man-leaps-out-of-a-burnin_1687465.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cc5/christopher-hitchens-117_agriculture_suppose-that-a-man-leaps-out-of-a-burnin_1687465.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Suppose that a man leaps out of a burning building—as my dear friend and colleague Jeff Goldberg sat and…” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Christopher Hitchens", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“Suppose that a man leaps out...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/suppose-that-a-man-leaps-out-of-a-burning-building-as-my-dear-friend/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/suppose-that-a-man-leaps-out-of-a-burning-building-as-my-dear-friend/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```