Politics & Power Quote by Arthur Hays Sulzberger

National self-forgiveness is one of the most durable forms of power. Sulzberger’s line isn’t a plea for cosmopolitan fairness; it’s a cool diagnosis of how patriotism quietly rewrites the moral ledger. The move is simple: our failures become “complexities” shaped by history, necessity, and bad luck, while other people’s failures become “character.” That asymmetry is where tolerance turns political. It lets a country maintain a flattering self-story even when the facts snag.

Coming from a publisher who ran The New York Times through the mid-century crucible, the remark carries newsroom fingerprints. Sulzberger lived in an era when nations sold themselves aggressively: wartime propaganda, the early Cold War’s ideological branding, decolonization’s messy birth narratives. In that climate, judging others harshly wasn’t just a habit; it was a tool of alignment. Condemnation abroad can function as domestic glue. It produces a shared “we” by designating a “they” whose errors look uniquely disqualifying.

The subtext also implicates media, including Sulzberger’s own institutions. What counts as a “mistake” versus a “weakness” is often a framing choice: euphemism at home, pathology abroad. Tolerance becomes selective not only because citizens are hypocrites, but because information systems reward loyalty, simplify foreign complexity, and turn distance into certainty. The line lands because it captures a grim emotional truth: people can sit with their country’s contradictions, but they prefer other nations to be cautionary tales.