Quotes About Coexistence

If it was necessary to tolerate in other people everything that one permits oneself, life would be unbearable.

If some people want to believe in Jesus, or Mohammed, or Buddha, or their ancestors, who is to say which is right and which wrong? It seems to me that most of the religions in the world are too dogmatic. They preach the 'live and let live' philosophy, but rarely do they practise it.

I am constantly being surprised by the number of people, in different parts of the world, who seem to be quite oblivious to the animal life around them.

If you want my personal view I do not think it matters what you worship provided what you worship does no harm to others....You must remember always that one man's God may be another man's fairy tale, but both Gods and fairy tales have their place in the world.

Until we consider animal life to be worthy of the consideration and reverence we bestow upon old books and pictures and historic monuments, there will always be the animal refugee living a precarious life on the edge of extermination, dependent for existence on the charity of a few human beings.

That Jews and Christians, together with Muslims, can live in amity, respecting differences while honoring commonalities—that this is no pipe dream—is proven by the fact that, for centuries, they did just that. —James Carroll1

The hagaddah came to Sarajevo for a reason. It was here to test us, to see if there were people who could see that what united us was more than what divided us. That to be a human being matters more than to be a Jew or a Muslim, Catholic or Orthodox. p. 361

The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people.

Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others.

London is a roost, for every bird.

A pessimist is one who has been compelled to live with an optimist.

What we call reality is an agreement that people have arrived at to make life more livable.

It is well to remember that the entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others.

Tolerance is the only real test of civilization.

Toleration is the best religion.

This world surely is wide enough to hold both thee and me.

Jews know hard days like the rest of us. Yes, Jews suffered — it's part of being human... Jews did not suffer more than any other comparable group of people. Jews as a rule belonged to the exploiting classes; that is why the Jewish Quarter is located next to the Royal palaces in Seville and Paris.

Anyone who grows up around farm animals cannot side with a wolf in the long clash of things. But you can be against tormenting any creature.

Oh, ugasite mržnju! Ljudi su nama potrebni i nikako se, nikako ne može živjeti bez opraštanja.

There is probably nothing like living together for blinding people to each other.

we really want to see change in the world and find a common, sacred meeting place, we can practice forgiveness rather than against-ness.  

Involuntary organizations ought to be tolerant, but voluntary organizations, so far as the fundamental purpose of their existence is concerned, must be intolerant or else cease to exist.

Yet we cannot live our daily lives in a realm of pure ideas, cocooned from sense-experience. The question is not, How can we keep the imagination pure, protected from the onslaughts of reality? The question has to be, Can we find a way for the two to coexist?

It occurs to me that we crush insects beneath our feet, miracles of creation too, beetles, worms, cockroaches, ants, in their various ways.