Richard John Neuhaus Quotes

There will always be someone else with a different view than you. I appreciate them and would never say that they are wrong. I hope that they would give me that courtesy also.

Let us not speak of tolerance. This negative word implies grudging concessions by smug consciences. Rather, let us speak of mutual understanding and mutual respect.

I think that we all got to have respect for each other. And we could all be more careful with the things we say.

I'm all for a passionate debate, and sometimes things can be heated, which is fine, up to a point. As long as we remember that we are human beings.

That's something that the world needs to learn today: that you can disagree and still be friends.

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.

Years ago on my radio show, I used to say, 'I'm a conservative, but I'm not in a bad mood about it.' I've always believed that civility in heavy doses is essential in self-government.

Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.

When men and women are able to respect and accept their differences then love has a chance to blossom.

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

I have and I will always work to promote a civil public discourse.

I want there to be a level of respect between everybody.

We may disagree on some things, but we can do so without being disagreeable.

One of the lines from my books is about having respect for different minds, and if I had to have an epitaph at this point in my life, that would be it.

Our civilization is becoming less civil. You don’t have the right to demonize somebody just because they disagree with you.

All the lessons of psychiatry, psychology, social work, indeed culture, have taught us over the last hundred years that it is the acceptance of differences, not the search for similarities which enables people to relate to each other in their personal or family lives.

We should accept diversity and pluralism and learn to live in them, and learn how to grow in them, without losing our identity and compromising ourselves

Believing in each culture's right to be understood by the other party without any form of falseness or distortion is paramount.

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.

We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us.

We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another

We can argue and we can disagree, but we don’t need to poke our fingers in each other’s eyes in order to get our points across.

It is important in a democracy to respect contrary opinion without impugning the motives or maligning the character of ones opponents. To view it any other way is to encourage the same type of sickness in public life that leads to assassinations.

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