Topic
Gibran's observation is perhaps the most unexpected in this collection: he has learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind — and yet he is ungrateful to these teachers. This is a more complex position on tolerance than most of the collection reaches: the intolerant are useful instructors in what to avoid, and the lesson is not gratitude but observation. Tocqueville on living with enemies because you cannot always live with friends is the political reality that undercuts the easy ideal. Okakura Kakuzo on art-of-life as constant readjustment is the most philosophical account: tolerance is not an ethical position but a skill of continuous adaptation to whatever the world is actually doing. Franklin and Montaigne on marriage both appear under tolerance because sustained intimate relationship is tolerance's most demanding arena. What the collection argues is that tolerance is not passive acceptance but an active achievement — and the instruction for developing it often comes from the people who most lack it.
They value not because it is humane, lovely, and good for man; they only prize it because it was Christ who taught it.