No man has a right in America to treat any other man "tolerantly" for tolerance is the assumption of superiority. Our liberties are equal rights of every citizen.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes that tolerance should not be viewed as a means of superiority over others, but rather as an essential equality among all citizens.
Wendell Willkie's quote challenges the notion of tolerance as a virtue that implies a hierarchy where one person tolerates another from a position of superiority. Instead, it asserts that true equality means recognizing the equal worth and rights of every citizen in America, advocating for a genuine sense of respect and shared liberty among individuals without a patronizing attitude.
In practice
In a speech advocating for civil rights, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of true equality.
Freedom is an indivisible word. If we want to enjoy it, and fight for it, we must be prepared to extend it to everyone, whether they are rich or poor, whether they agree with us or not, no matter what their race or the color of their skin.
It is from weakness that people reach for dictators and concentrated government power. Only the strong can be free. And only the productive can be strong.
Today it is becoming increasingly apparent to thoughtful Americans that we cannot fight the forces and ideas of imperialism abroad and maintain any form of imperialism at home. The war has done this to our thinking.
I believe the moral losses of expediency always far outweigh the temporary gains.
To suppress minority thinking and minority expression would tend to freeze society and prevent progress. Now more than ever we must keep in the forefront of our minds the fact that whenever we take away the liberties of those we hate, we are opening the way to loss of liberty for those we love.
To the truly ethical man, all of life is sacred, including forms of life that from the human point of view may seem lower than ours.
The myth of unending consumption has taken the place of the belief in life everlasting.
America is the world's engine but also its conscience. We are the petri dish of diversity and inclusiveness.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
To the dumb question, 'Why me?' the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply, 'Why not?'
The proclamation of the Gospel is destined primarily to the poor, to those who often lack the essentials for a decent life. The good news is first announced to them, that God loves them before all others and comes to visit them through the acts of charity that the disciples of Christ carry out in his name.
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