To suppress minority thinking and minority expression would tend to freeze society and prevent progress. Now more than ever we must keep in the forefront of our minds the fact that whenever we take away the liberties of those we hate, we are opening the way to loss of liberty for those we love.
Interpretation
Suppressing minority views hinders societal progress and threatens everyone's freedoms.
This quote emphasizes the importance of protecting the rights and expressions of minority groups in society. It warns that when we infringe on the liberties of those we disagree with, we lay the groundwork for the erosion of our own freedoms, ultimately affecting everyone, including those we cherish. This message encourages an open and inclusive dialogue for societal advancement.
In practice
During a speech on civil liberties, one might quote this to emphasize the need for protecting all forms of expression.
Freedom is an indivisible word. If we want to enjoy it, and fight for it, we must be prepared to extend it to everyone, whether they are rich or poor, whether they agree with us or not, no matter what their race or the color of their skin.
It is from weakness that people reach for dictators and concentrated government power. Only the strong can be free. And only the productive can be strong.
Today it is becoming increasingly apparent to thoughtful Americans that we cannot fight the forces and ideas of imperialism abroad and maintain any form of imperialism at home. The war has done this to our thinking.
No man has a right in America to treat any other man "tolerantly" for tolerance is the assumption of superiority. Our liberties are equal rights of every citizen.
I believe the moral losses of expediency always far outweigh the temporary gains.
It is more important that we should remember God than that we should breathe: indeed, if one may say so, we should do nothing else besides.
We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.
It is a well-known fact that we see the faults in other's works more readily than we do in our own.
During most of my life, my contact with Jews and Judaism was slight. I gave little thought to their problems, save in asking myself, from time to time, whether we were showing by our lives due appreciation of the opportunities which this hospitable country affords. My approach to Zionism was through Americanism.
We have to build the Republic of Heaven where we are, because for us there is no elsewhere.
To claim you are more detached, more alien to everything than anyone, and to be merely a fanatic of indifference!
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.