# Tolerance vs Love?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tolerance-vs-love/24730>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 6, 2000, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tolerance-vs-love/24730 "2000-07-06T08:00:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pazas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@pazas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pazas)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2000, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tolerance-vs-love/24730/1 "2000-07-06T08:00:47Z")

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Maybe this should go in the Great debates part oh well. I have heard a lot of talk of tolerance lately. But I would rather have love, people who love each other and still disagree with each other on issues. I think people have lost the abilty to disagree with each other and still love each other. If we have a whole lot of tolerance what do we do with the intolerant? Not tolerate them? We need to get back to loving each other instead of just tolerating each other.

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**Author:** ![tcburnett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@tcburnett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tcburnett)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2000, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tolerance-vs-love/24730/2 "2000-07-06T08:09:24Z")

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I dunno…I love ya man, I just can’t tolerate you.

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**Author:** ![Bluemonchichi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Bluemonchichi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bluemonchichi)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2000, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tolerance-vs-love/24730/3 "2000-07-06T08:24:35Z")

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I think you are on the right track in many ways, but I don’t agree with you about love over tolerance. For me, love is reserved for very special people. I have disagreements with people I love often and it doesn’t make me love them any less. With the people I am close to it is not a matter of tolerance, but a matter of loving the person even if I don’t always agree with them.  
I save my tolerance for people I am not close to, for example a stranger or aquantance. I looked up tolerance and the definition I found was: “sympathy or indulgence for beliefs on practices differing from or conflicting with one’s own.” Offering someone else sympathy when you do not agree with them seems to me to be a very giving and possibly “loving” response. I am not going to love every person I come across, but I will be open-minded enough to tolerate actions or opinions I do not agree with.  
As far as what to do with the intolerant… that is a very loaded question that I don’t think I should answer that here. 😉