from My Commonplace Book (tolerating totalitarianism)

To tolerate totalitarian movements within a democratic society means just that: to tolerate them, and nothing more; it does not, or at least ought not to, imply that public institutions should treat them in the same way they treat movements and ideas within the democratic spectrum. In other words, a constitution which is committed to defending democratic values cannot at the same time pretend, without self-contradiction, to be indifferent to these values: it cannot treat ideologies and activities committed to their destruction on a par with all others. . . . The self-protection of democracy is simply abandoned if its enemies enjoy the same kind of respect as its defenders.

—Leszek Kołakowski, "Genocide and Ideology" (1977), in Is God Happy? Selected Essays