Tolerance quotes

All’s Well That Ends Well, Act I, Scene 1; the Countess of Roussillon gives Bertram the counsel “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” Verified against Wikisource’s 1910 facsimile transcription of the 1623 First Folio (folio spelling “Loue all, trust a few, Doe wrong to none”); direct evidence resolves to the reviewed Act I transcription.

Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.

Rights of Man, Part II, Project Gutenberg public-domain collection #3742. The line appears in Paine’s statement of independence from place or person while criticizing hereditary political privilege. The exact text is “my country is the world, and my religion is to do good,” not the later expanded attribution “all mankind are my brethren.”

The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book XV gives the maxim as a concise rule for conduct toward others.

On Liberty, Chapter 2; Mill argues for open discussion because opposing views expose weaknesses and sharpen understanding.

Emma, Volume I, Chapter IX, scan-backed 1816 John Murray first edition on Wikisource. Emma tells her father that one half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other while explaining why his grandchildren enjoy rough play that he himself cannot comprehend; this is Emma Woodhouse’s fictional dialogue, not Austen speaking autobiographically.

Meditations, Book VIII; George Long translation in Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.

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.

Dhammapada, early verses in Max Müller’s translation; the passage contrasts retaliation with non-hatred.

Walden, “The Bean-Field,” Project Gutenberg #205. Thoreau follows the question by imagining living through other ages and worlds in an hour; the passage is about the variety of human experience and the limits of judging what another life can contain.

Areopagitica, Project Gutenberg #608. The sentence appears in Milton’s argument against licensing and prior restraint on printing. It is a defense of open intellectual encounter, not a claim that every expression is harmless or beyond later judgment.

Up from Slavery, Chapter XI, “Making Their Beds Before They Could Lie On Them,” Project Gutenberg #2376. Washington says he learned from General Armstrong to reject racial hatred and applies that lesson specifically to hostility and wrongs inflicted on Black Americans; the historical context remains explicit rather than becoming generic advice to ignore mistreatment.

The Innocents Abroad (1869), Conclusion (Wikisource Chapter LXII). Twain argues from the completed excursion that travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness. Verified against the scan-backed 1869 first edition; this remains Twain’s nineteenth-century retrospective travel argument rather than a modern causal social-science finding.

Of Studies, in Bacon’s instructions for how different kinds of books should be read.

A Theologico-Political Treatise — Part III, Chapter XIV, paragraph 77, Project Gutenberg #991. The frozen catalog preserves the opening of Spinoza’s longer sentence; the paragraph continues by condemning teachings tending toward obstinacy, hatred, strife and anger and praising justice and charity. This is seventeenth-century theological / political philosophy, not a modern empirical claim.

The Innocents Abroad (1869), Conclusion (Wikisource Chapter LXII). Immediately after the prejudice sentence Twain argues that broad, wholesome and charitable views cannot be acquired by remaining in one small corner of the earth. Verified against the scan-backed 1869 first edition and retained as historical travel argument rather than an empirical guarantee.

The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience (1670), represented by the CELT / University College Cork transcription. Original-period spelling is retained. Penn is making a seventeenth-century Quaker argument against coercion in religion; the record is historical political-religious thought, not current legal advice.

Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, August 18, 1790, Founders Online. Washington follows this by saying the United States government gives “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” The record is historical civic-religious argument, not evidence that the period had already achieved equal liberty in practice.

A Philosophical Dictionary, article ‘Toleration,’ Section I, Project Gutenberg #35630. Voltaire opens the section by calling toleration an attribute of humanity and urging mutual pardon for human weakness and error, then turns immediately to religious communities trading together without violence. This remains an Enlightenment polemic against religious persecution rather than a modern legal definition or universal empirical law.

On Liberty, Chapter II, Project Gutenberg #34901. Mill’s next argument is epistemic as well as political: suppressing an opinion can deprive everyone of truth or of the clearer understanding created when truth is tested against error.

A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), public-domain text also preserved in The Works of John Locke. Locke immediately distinguishes civil government from religion and argues that persecution should not be disguised as care for souls. His historical position had limits, so this page does not present the letter as a complete modern theory of equal religious freedom.