Source identified1
Read & copy
“Error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it.”
Meaning & context
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.
Source details
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.
