Norman Lamm Quotes

The word 'tolerance' once meant we all have the right to argue rationally for our deepest convictions in the public arena. Now it means those convictions are not even subject to rational debate.

The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions.

One of the hallmarks of higher education and of democracy is the ability to converse with people with whom we disagree.

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

Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.

Debate is healthy and no one in this chamber - starting with me - has a monopoly on being right.

There is nothing wrong with intellectual differences flowing from freedom of thought as long as such differences remain confined to intellectual debates.

I love all men who think, even those who think otherwise than myself.

In an open society, no idea can be above scrutiny, just as no people should be beneath dignity.

Everyone should have their own opinion and be able to voice it. No matter what it is. Of course, that does not mean your opinion is always right. But, you're certainly entitled to your opinion.

The lawsuits we are seeing today to ostracize and prevent different ideas recall previous eras. We must understand that Islam has given man freedom of thought. Islam's history proves that no one is immune to error except the Prophet.

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

In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education.

By intellectual liberty I mean the right to think and the right to think wrong.

Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

The University is not engaged in making ideas safe for students. It is engaged in making students safe for ideas. Thus it permits the freest expression of views before students, trusting to their good sense in passing judgment on these views. Only in this way can it best serve American democracy.

The doctrine of toleration requires a positive as well as a negative statement. It is not only wrong to burn a man on account of his creed, but it is right to encourage the open avowal and defense of every opinion sincerely maintained. Every man who says frankly and fully what he thinks is so far doing a public service. We should be grateful to him for attacking most unsparingly our most cherished opinions.

Science requires much more than money and projects. Science requires freedom: freedom to enquire, to challenge, to think, and to envision the unimagined. We must be able to question convention and arbitrate our disputes by the rules of evidence. It is the content of scientific work that matters, not the persons who produced it, regardless of the color of their skin, the god they choose to worship, the ethnic group they were born into, or their gender. These are the values of science, but even more, they are societal values worth defending, not just to promote the pursuit of science but to have a better and more humane society.

A moral consideration of the utmost importance for us: We must respect individual differences, yet we must coordinate, work together, and act as one…. Mutual commitment to ideals -- yes; the stifling of all dissenting notions -- no.

Not all ideas will be accepted, but every idea deserves its own space, and every idea deserves to be expressed.

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.

Of all forms of diversity that should be celebrated on university campuses, none is more important than supporting, nurturing, and promoting intellectual diversity.

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

Let us always remember that he does not really believe his own opinion, who dares not give free scope to his opponent.

All people deserve respect, but not all ideas do.