On the record
In a time of crisis, particularly, when the things we hold most dear are threatened, we shall find the desire to throw overboard the habits of tolerance, almost irresistible.
Said by
Harold J. Laski
Source
gutenberg.orgHarold J. Laski: “In a time of crisis, particularly, when the things we hold most dear are threatened, we shall find the desire to throw…”
Editor's note · Context
Laski warns that during crises, the urge to abandon tolerance can become overwhelming.
Share
More from Harold J. Laski
The essence of the persecuting position is always that the persecutor has hold of truth and that he would betray its service by allowing it to be questioned.
We grant toleration in one part of the field only to deny it in another.
The intolerance may be Catholic, when it insists that a unity of outlook is essential for the preservation of society; or it may be Protestant when, as with Calvin and the Socinians, it holds that the blasphemous nature of the belief…
He is able, accordingly, to indulge in the twofold luxury not only of preserving his own authority, but also of assisting the persons attacked to enter, if they so choose, the way of truth.
Other voices in this conversation
