Quotes on tolerance

A reader named Mike Baker handed me a huge collection of quotes, organized by topic. Here are the quotes he collected on the topic of tolerance: "Human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue; it makes it a requirement for survival." ~ René Dubos Without tolerance, our world turns into hell. ~ Friedrich Durrenmatt Anger and intolerance are the twin enemies of correct understanding. ~ Mohandas Gandhi I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers. ~ Kahlil Gibran (1883 - 1931) Tolerance and celebration of individual differences is the fire that fuels lasting love. -- Tom Hannah The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. -- Eric Hoffer I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others. -- Thomas Jefferson "Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others." -- John F. Kennedy Tolerance is the positive and cordial effort to understand another's beliefs, practices, and habits without necessarily sharing or accepting them. -- Joshua Liebman No human trait deserves less tolerance in everyday life….. than intolerance. -- Giacomo Leopardi Let us not speak of tolerance. This negative word implies grudging concessions by smug consciences. Rather, let us speak of mutual understanding and mutual respect. -- Father Dominique Pire We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. -- Karl Popper "If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace." -- Franklin Roosevelt Tolerance is the oil which takes the friction out of life. -- Wilbert E. Scheer In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Continue ReadingQuotes on tolerance

Quotes on Liberty

A DI reader named Mike Baker offered me his large collection of quotes for reprinting here. Today's installment of quotes are on the topic of Liberty and Human Rights. The Framers of the Bill of Rights did not purport to "create" rights. Rather, they designed the Bill of Rights to prohibit our Government from infringing rights and liberties presumed to be preexisting. -- Justice William J. Brennan It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners. ~ Albert Camus "Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is in an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe." --Frederick Douglass He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. Thomas Paine (1737 - 1809) Tolerance is ennobling, which is why we should teach it to our children. Pluralism is insurance against tyranny, which is why we should demand it of our government. To speak up for even the most despised minorities is both morally right and politically prudent." ~ Steven Landsburg The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one. --Albert Einstein If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. -Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776 Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom, and then lost it, have never known it again. -Ronald Reagan If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom, and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too. -W. Somerset Maugham "Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined." -Patrick Henry Fear is not the natural state of civilized people. ~ Aung San Suu Kyi Thousands of years ago the question was asked; ''Am I my brother's keeper?'' That question has never yet been answered in a way that is satisfactory to civilized society. Yes, I am my brother's keeper. I am under a moral obligation to him that is inspired, not by any maudlin sentimentality but by the higher duty I owe myself. What would you think me if I were capable of seating myself at a table and gorging myself with food and saw about me the children of my fellow beings starving to death. ~ Eugene V. Debs States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions. ~ Noam Chomsky The only way to make sure people you agree with can speak is to support the rights of people you don't agree with. ~Eleanor Holmes Norton Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think. But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing. ~ Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791 An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. ~ Thomas Paine, "Dissertations on First Principles of Government", 1795

Continue ReadingQuotes on Liberty

Kahlil Gibran’s “On Children”

How often do you cross paths with a parent who is attempting to make his or her children in the parent's image and likeness? I see it on a regular basis. The prototypical case is the parent who didn't make it to the Broadway stage who tries to turn his/her child into a Broadway performer. You often see parents who demand athletic excellence from their kids, often (it seems) in an effort to compensate for the parent's failed strivings to make it big in sports. This style of parenting reaches every high-earning or high-prestige profession.  Or maybe it's not to make up for the parents own failings as much as it is an attempt to create a trophy child so that, at cocktail parties, the parent can nonchalantly drop a few hints about his or her child's (sometimes admittedly spectacular) accomplishments. This afternoon, a friend sent me a perfect antidote for this mindset. It's a poem by Kahlil Gibran, titled "On Children." Upon reading it, I was reminded of the following quote by Friedrich Nietzsche:  “What does your conscience say? — 'You should become the person you are'.”

Continue ReadingKahlil Gibran’s “On Children”

Quotes about engaging in a protest

About a year ago, a DI reader named Mike Baker handed me his extensive collection of quotes and invited me to publish them. Today's quotes from Mike are on the topic right and the duty to engage in a political protest: "A Patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government." Edward R. Abbey "It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." Samuel Adams "The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in time of great moral crisis." Dante Alighieri, Italian poet (1265-1321) "Silence never won rights. They are not handed down from above; they are forced by pressures from below.: Roger Nash Baldwin So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we'll be called a democracy. Roger Nash Baldwin "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing" Edmund Burke "True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else." Clarence Darrow "No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots." Barbara Ehrenreich "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violen trevolution inevitable." John F. Kennedy “Think for yourself, question authority.” Timothy Leary "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it." Edward R. Murrow "There is one tradition in America I am proud to inherit. It is our first freedom and the truest expression of our Americanism: the ability to dissent without fear. It is our right to utter the words, "I disagree." We must feel at liberty to speak those words to our neighbors, our clergy, our educators, our news media, our lawmakers and, above all, to the one among us we elect President." The Nation (15 July 1991) "First they arrested the communists, but I was not a communist, so I did nothing. Then they came for the social democrats, but I was not a social democrat, so I did nothing. Then they arrested the trade unionists, and I did nothing because I was not one. Then they came for the Jews and the Catholics, but I was neither a Jew nor a Catholic and I did nothing. At last they came and arrested me, and there was no one left to do anything about it." Rev. Martin Niemoller, nazi prison survivor "The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." Plato "Do not... regard the critics as questionable patriots. What were Washington and Jefferson and Adams but profound critics of the colonial status quo?" Adlai Stevenson "If... the machine of government... is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law." Henry David Thoreau "Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion." Oscar Wilde

Continue ReadingQuotes about engaging in a protest

Yet more quotes

I collect quotes from many sources and occasional post them at this site. I think of them novels wrapped up in sentences. Here's my latest batch of favorite quotes: "The surprising thing about young fools is how many survive to become old fools." Doug Larson "The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism—ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power." Franklin D. Roosevelt “Remembering that you are going to di3e is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” Steve Jobs 1987 "Everybody lies, but it doesn't matter because nobody listens." Nick Diamos “If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” ― Malcolm X "Do not think of knocking out another person's brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago." Horace Mann (1796 - 1859) "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats." H. L. Mencken "I sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world." Walt Whitman "The day will come when our Republic will be an impossibility because wealth will be concentrated in the hands of a few. When that day comes, we must rely upon the wisdom of the best elements in the country to readjust the laws of the nation." - James Madison "I think on-stage nudity is disgusting, shameful and damaging to all things American. But if I were 22 with a great body, it would be artistic, tasteful, patriotic and a progressive religious experience." Shelley Winters (1922 - 2006) "In wartime truth is so precious that she should be attended by a bodyguard of lies." Winston Churchill "The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work." Richard Bach "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is stoned to death." Joan D. Vinge, Catspaw When someone asked Benjamin Franklin what type of government he and the other founders had birthed on this country, he famously replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” "We do not inherit this earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." Native American proverb "Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it." Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948) "The easiest kind of relationship for me is with ten thousand people. The hardest is with one." Joan Baez "Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge." Carl Sagan "The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off." Gloria Steinem "No matter how rich you become, how famous or powerful, when you die the size of your funeral will still pretty much depend on the weather." Michael Pritchard

Continue ReadingYet more quotes