Reuven Rivlin Quotes

Everybody is entitled to an honest opinion.

I'm in the civil discourse business. I think it takes all kinds. And more power to everybody.

Our right to disagree is precious but fragile. The best way to protect and preserve it is to let the other side speak without demonizing them or destroying their right to be heard. Such civil exchanges are the heart beat of democracy - essential to keeping it alive.

[Sometimes] the minorities are too respectable, not to be entitled to some sacrifice of opinion, in the majority.

To say a democracy prospers only if one set of voices is heard would be untrue.

It is not undemocratic to express one's difference of opinion.

I am an optimist, and I believe that people are inherently good and that if you give everyone a voice and freedom of expression, the truth and the good will outweigh the bad.

If it's right and true, it's listened to and accommodated.

I'm an extreme libertarian, but I realize we're in a democracy, and in a democracy, people can have views of all stripes, and there's no reason to argue about it.

A free society is a place where it's safe to be unpopular.

The only way to build up a respect for minority rights and other aspects of democracy is to practice it. You have to work at it to have it.

Happy the generation where the great listen to the small, for it follows that in such a generation the small will listen to the great.

Liberty resides in the rights of those people whose views we find most odious.

America is great precisely because it is an open society, and an open society recognizes that nobody is the ultimate arbiter — and that we may be wrong at times, even if we are powerful. We must be open to criticism and respect divergent and different views and interests.

Try and understand--there are views other than yours.

Nobody will ever agree with everything everyone says, especially once an issue or speaker becomes politically charged. But as tolerant and civilized Americans, we should at least have the decency to hear them out.

If the so called 'democratic' individuals out there really believe in their talk about diversity, they should let those with truly different opinions be allowed to talk freely in public, too.

I hope that people who might speak out respectfully and out of concern would not get mobbed or bullied for their differing views.

Somehow, defending my liberal values of free speech, liberty, and rights of the individual has become a conservative position.

It's important for people to, instead of automatically assuming everything the opposite side says is incorrect, you have to at least listen and see why someone might feel a certain way.

Everybody has their opinion. I respect anything that anybody has to say.

Liberalism -- it is well to recall this today -- is the supreme form of generosity; it is the right which the majority concedes to minorities and hence it is the noblest cry that has ever resounded in this planet. It announces the determination to share existence with the enemy; more than that, with an enemy which is weak.

Civility is not about dousing strongly held views. It's about making sure that people are willing to respect other perspectives.

You should be able to voice your opinion and respect the voice of the other side. You should be willing to educate yourself and know what it is you're dealing with.

The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility.