Shakuntala Devi Quotes

Commandment Number One of any truly civilized society is this: Let people be different.

That's the beauty of democracy — you believe what you believe, I believe what I believe, and as long as we're not hurting each other, that's fine. Placing a value judgment on a person's beliefs has no place in a democracy.

Different isn't evil, it's just different.

Our people should feel free to express diverse views, pursue unconventional ideas or simply be different.

Allow the diversity to exist. There is nothing wrong with it. Hell, we put up with the religious right-we can put up with transgendered human beings.

You know, different people are going to react different ways. And I don't think we should be intolerable because people do things a little differently.

Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently.

In a pluralistic society, no group, no matter how numerous or powerful, has a right to prescribe a set of beliefs or a code of ethics for all.

A free society means that you might have to put up with a lot of things you despise.

We have taken the idea of tolerance so far that we have to put up with intolerance.

Our institutions were not devised to bring about uniformity of opinion; if they had we might well abandon hope. It is important to remember, as has well been said, 'the essential characteristic of true liberty is that under its shelter many different types of life and character and opinion and belief can develop unmolested and unobstructed.’

I don't expect for people to like the same things, so I don't feel a need to force people to understand who we are.

If one person comes in and says, this is the way life should be, I think you're asking for chaos. I think you gotta let different people live different ways. It's a big world.

I am different. Let this not upset you

The unity of freedom has never relied on uniformity of opinion.

It's not just about me. It's about all of us, accepting one another. We're all different... That's a good thing.

Our times might emphasize equality, which we then mistake for the need for everyone to be the same, but what we really mean by this is the equal chance for people to express their differences, to let a thousand flowers bloom.

We can all live under the Constitution and all express ourself in radically different ways and not control each other.

If there is any message to my work, it is ultimately that it's ok to be different.

What's important is the tolerance. If people are not beating other people up, or shooting them for being different, then that's progress. Even if the ideas that go through their head are fodder for novelists.

I just want people to admit that there's no one way to live your life.

At the end of the day, people have to respect people's differences. I am different than some people would like me to be.

Gene Roddenberry's thing always was, we should not pass judgment on anything that anyone else believes in or what they do in their lives.

To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater.

I remember while I was at school some of my Muslim friends talked about a handful of people spoiling things in every culture. Hatred or hurt or pain isn't specific to a religion. I think it's a matter of acceptance. The one thing the world has to accept is everybody is different. What is normal to us is different and unusual to somebody else.