Mary Catherine Bateson Quotes

I always tell my students: I don't care which side you're on. I respect you too much to try to persuade you in 120 minutes a week, much less lure you into pretending that you agree with me. All I want is for you to own this democracy, to see yours, to have a stake in it.

Questioning is the great strength of democracy; the ability to doubt without losing face

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.

In a well-functioning democracy, people frequently encounter topics and points of view that they did not specifically select but from which they learn. Those encounters can change minds and, even, the course of lives.

I think it is something that is so important, to be very aware of the direction in which the 21st century is going with all this blind faith in democracy. And by the way, I am not against democracy - I am against the blind faith that is being put in democracy.

To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy.

We are in a democratic society. It's our job to question.

We live in a democracy. We have this extraordinary opportunity to use our mind and say what we think, speak as we think. Sometimes what we say is objectionable to other people. But that is part of a free society.

I can think that you are mistaken, but I have to be ready to give my life to maintain your right to make mistakes. I have to, though, have the right to say that you're mistaken. This is the principal of the liberal society.

Because we are a democracy, there will be “winners” and “losers” on policy issues and curriculum decisions. But if the different perspectives have been given full and fair hearing and if every effort has been made to protect the conscience of all parents and students, then even those who may “lose” on a particular policy will most likely remain supporters of the public schools.

If you can exchange information freely, isn’t that almost a definition of democracy.

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

Free and open communications is the best guarantee of democracy.

I am not so much concerned with the right of everyone to say anything he pleases as I am about our need as a self-governing people to hear everything relevant

Democracy relies on free speech. Yes, say anything you want, but it relies even more on the speech being truthful. It is the truth, after all, that sets us free.

A democracy depends on its people, the literate and the well read.

I think that's the beauty of living in America, right? We all get our own opinion, and no one opinion is absolute.

Democracy depends on well educated and engaged citizens.

The foundation of our democracy is the ability to have a debate about any subject. That is why I am so committed to defending free speech.

American democracy is greater with free speech and open dialogue.

This is why universities, and civil society more generally, are so important for a democracy like ours, founded on a genuine idealism that we have a hard time holding on to. They provide a space to question whatever we are doing in the name of things we say we believe in or might believe in.

Poking fun at other people's beliefs, while it may seem frivolous and offensive, is a non-negotiable right. It is a principle that underpins free speech, the basis for progress.

A basic tenet of a healthy democracy is open dialogue and transparency.

The Greens have every right to run, that's what democracy is, and they should argue their point by saying how they think people should vote, not by telling us to be silent.

The challenge is to lend conviction even to the voices which advocate views I find personally abhorrent, whether they are political Islamists or officers justifying a coup.