My Top 10 Quotes on Tolerance — It’s Never Enough!

How tolerant are you? I am sure you are very nice to everybody no matter what their nationality, age, social class, skin color, race, or sexual orientation.

Climate change, wars, and diseases are causing mass upheavals. Hunger, fires, floods, and political persecution are adding daily to the number of refugees and asylum seekers.

Big numbers don’t mean much to us. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the number was 70 million in 2019.

If we think that every second child in the world is a refugee, this puts it into a sharper perspective.

Or to put it more bluntly, the world is facing the largest refugee crisis since World War II.

How do we react?

We can be filled with fear, anger and hatred. Donald Trump has used these emotions and sentiments successfully and people are about to re-elect him for a second term as President in 2020. He even convinced voters that building a 2,000-mile wall might solve the problem!

Notice how he never, ever uses the word “tolerance”.

It is a shocking fact that Trump’s hateful rhetoric is already damaging kids at school as witnessed by the increase in “Trump Bullying”.

Another reaction might be to go beyond tolerance and be more active and seek engagement, acceptance, dialogue and some integration.

This also applies to every minority who are marked out for discrimination. Not just refugees and asylum seekers. It includes Jews, LGBTQ, Pro-Choice and any other group who dare to be different in their beliefs and go against the status quo.

The ex Secretary-General of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon explained:-

“Our practice of tolerance must mean more than peaceful co-existence, crucial as that is. It must be an active understanding fostered through dialogue and positive engagement with others.” — Ban Ki-Moon.

We have to live and work together and not shut ourselves in ghettoes or hide behind walls.

We need to celebrate the differences of others, co-operate, and collaborate with each other to survive and build a better world.

Again tolerance is just the first step to take. We want equal rights but we have to ensure they are respected and practiced.

Is it really too much to accept and love others in our everyday lives?

Here are my top 10 quotes to help us think about how we can be more tolerant, accepting and involved.

1. “I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness.” — Christopher Hitchins

2. Our tolerance is part of what makes Britain Britain. So conform to it, or don’t come here.” — Tony Blair, UK Prime Minister (1997–2007)

3. “Why are so many problems today perceived as problems of intolerance, rather than as problems of inequality, exploitation, or injustice? Why is the proposed remedy tolerance, rather than emancipation, political struggle, or even armed struggle?” — Slavoj Zizek, Living in the End Times

4. “The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.” — Mother Teresa

5. “Religion is like a pair of shoes…..Find one that fits for you, but don’t make me wear your shoes.” ― George Carlin

6. “Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the wrong. Sometime in life you will have been all of these.” ― George Washington Carver

7. “Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too.” ― Voltaire, Traité sur la tolérance, à l’occasion de la mort de Jean Calas

8. “If you want to understand a society, take a good look at the drugs it uses. And what can this tell you about American culture? Well, look at the drugs we use. Except for pharmaceutical poison, there are essentially only two drugs that Western civilization tolerates: Caffeine from Monday to Friday to energize you enough to make you a productive member of society, and alcohol from Friday to Monday to keep you too stupid to figure out the prison that you are living in.” ― Bill Hicks

9. “If you can cultivate the right attitude, your enemies are your best spiritual teachers because their presence provides you with the opportunity to enhance and develop tolerance, patience and understanding.” ― Dalai Lama XIV

10. “The highest result of education is tolerance” ― Helen Keller

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