Michael Dyson Quotes

You don't have to think exactly like me.

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

We will have differences. Even in our own country we do not see everything alike. If we did, we would all want the same wife—and that would be a problem, wouldn't it!

We must see the pluralism of the world, and not bind it by seeking common denominators.

I have no more right to object to a man for holding a different opinion from mine than I have to differ with a man because he wears a wig and I wear my own hair; but if he takes his wig off and shakes the powder in my face, I shall consider it my duty to get quit of him as soon as possible..

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

Tolerance is important, especially in a democracy. The ability to have honest conversations, even if you come from a different place, a difference perspective, is fundamentally important.

It takes all sorts of people to make the world.

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

We were all created in His image, and yet we were each created different and unique. No two people are alike. No two hearts beat to the same rhythm. If God had wanted everyone to be the same. He would have made it so. Therefore, disrespecting differences and imposing your thoughts on others is tantamount to disrespecting God’s holy scheme.

In order to survive, a plurality of true communities would require not egalitarianism and tolerance but knowledge, an understanding of the necessity of local differences, and respect. Respect, I think, always implies imagination - the ability to see one another, across our inevitable differences, as living souls.

Liberalism is that principle of political rights, according to which the public authority, in spite of being all-powerful, limits itself and attempts, even at ist own expense, to leave room in the state over which it rules for those to live who neither think nor feel as it does, that is to say as do the stronger, the majority.

We all have opinions and I don't think you need to apologize for your opinions.

My 'Idea of India' calls not just for tolerance, but a celebration of all points of view. Where the sensibilities of every individual are respected

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

Let our tribute to the dead be a new resolve: to respect people for what they individually think, rather than respect groups for what they were collectively brought up to believe.

It takes all sorts (to make a world

What a tiresome place America would be if freedom meant we all had to think alike or be the same color or wear the same gray flannel suit! That road leads to the conformity of the graveyard!

And when I go around and talk to schools, what I tell the kids are, first of all, you have to accept each other's differences. Some of you are going to be a crappy football player, some of you are going to be a great mathematician. Whatever it is, accept each other's differences and help prop each other up.

We all come in different shapes and sizes, and that's fine by me.

You don't need to push your beliefs onto other people!

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.

Terror will crash down on us if we fail to understand that a pluralistic society requires the personal and daily commitment of every citizen.

There is simply no room for anti-Semitism in a democratic and law-abiding state.

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