... I think what I think. Go you and do likewise. The living
truth can be re-born only from the equilibrium of opposing thoughts.
To make the citizen respect the city, it must be reciprocal; each has
his soul. It is his right and his first duty is to be true to it....
I have no illusions, and in this world of prey I do not attribute an
exaggerated importance to my own conscience, but however small we may
be or little we may do, we must exist. We are all liable to err, but
deceived or not, a man should be sincere; an honest mistake is not a
lie, but a stage on the road to truth. The real lie is to fear the
truth and try to stifle it. Even if you were a thousand times right,
if you resort to force to crush a sincere mistake, you commit the most
odious crime against reason itself. If reason is persecutor, and error
persecuted, I am for the victim, for error has rights as well as
truth.... Truth--the real truth, is to be always seeking what is true,
and to respect the efforts of those who suffer in the pursuit. If you
insult a man who is striving to hew out his path, if you persecute him
who wishes, and perhaps fails, to find less inhuman roads for human
progress, you make a martyr of him. Your way is the best, the only
one, you say? Follow it then, and let me follow mine.
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