“The golden rule of conduct is mutual toleration, seeing that we will never all think alike and we shall always see Truth in fragment and from different points of vision.”
Share this quote
Probable attribution
This saying is widely associated with Mahatma Gandhi, but the attribution is not supported by a reliable primary source.
Likely origin: Gandhi, Harijan, 22 July 1947 (Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol.88, p.239); also carried in All Men Are Brothers.
About this quote
It rests on humility about knowledge. Nobody gets the whole of truth, only a slice seen from wherever they happen to be standing. Once you accept that your own view is partial too, tolerating a clashing opinion stops feeling like weakness and starts looking like the only honest response.
When to use it
- Two colleagues stop trying to win the argument and instead combine their partial reads of the same data.
- Siblings splitting a parent's care accept that each of them saw a different side of the same person.
- A book club treats a sharp disagreement over a novel as more sightlines to gather, not a contest to settle.