We try to instill tolerance in our students as we teach them to respect differences among people and among groups. We try to practice it ourselves. And we reserve our strongest condemnation for individuals or institutions that are intolerant. We deeply believer that tolerance is the one virtue of character on which a liberal, pluralistic society most depends.
Liberal society can survive dishonesty.
It can survive disloyalty. But it can t survive intolerance. Indeed, as philosopher John Rawls has suggested, liberal society may even have invented tolerance as a practical feature of social life. We now know better, and we can be proud of our collective tolerance. It may be liberalism s finest achievement.