Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“Error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it.”
- Date
- 1801
Meaning of “Error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason…”
Jefferson argues that political disagreement need not be suppressed when open reasoning remains available to challenge error, treating free contest rather than coercion as the safer response to mistaken opinion.
Where does it come from?
Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801, reviewed against the public-domain Wikisource transcription. The error-of-opinion sentence follows Jefferson's distinction between differences of opinion and differences of principle during an appeal for republican political tolerance; it is historical political rhetoric rather than present-day legal doctrine.
