The Significance of Tolerance

is enhanced when it contains flowers of different varieties and colours. An advantage of appreciating diversity and differences is that it helps build character. For example, if you are wellmannered towards those whose views are similar to yours, you may be said to exhibit a fairly good character. However, if you behave kindly toward those who hold divergent views from you or who criticise you, you deserve to be credited with having an excellent character. A society whose members hold similar views and never have any critical discussions will soon find itself in the doldrums. The intellectual development of the members of this society will freeze because personal evolution takes place only where there is the interaction of divergent ideas and ways of thinking. Where there is no such interaction, how can intellectual development occur? Nobody in this world is perfect. If a person is endowed with some good qualities, he may be lacking in others. This is one reason why differences crop up among people. However, for life as a whole, these differences can be a great blessing: the good points of one person may compensate for the shortcomings of another person, just as a set of talents in one person may complement a different set of skills in someone else. If people could only learn to tolerate and even accept and celebrate others’ differences, their forbearance would become a great enabling factor in collective human development. The habit of tolerance prevents a person from wasting their time and talents on unnecessary matters. If you