“For those who accused me of turncoatism, please allow introspection. Who is the real opposition? Those who do nothing but criticize and accuse fellow oppositionist thereby dividing the bloc? Or those who choose to keep their silence first and who carefully choose their words in their desire to keep the group together.”

Original: Scegli con cura solo chi osa affrontare la vita sempre al tuo fianco.
Source: prevale.net

"Pythagorean Ethical Sentences From Stobæus" (1904)
Florilegium

1999

In the case of the latter, I simply leave them to torment themselves trying to gain my sympathy.
Aleph (2011)

Variant: And I shall set this last truth down. We are who we are because of those we choose to love and because of those who love us.
Source: The Winter Ghosts

Free speech in an age of identity politics (2015)
Context: To accept that certain things cannot be said is to accept that certain forms of power cannot be challenged.... This is why free speech is essential not simply to the practice of democracy, but to the aspirations of those groups who may have been failed by the formal democratic processes; to those whose voices may have been silenced by racism, for instance. The real value of free speech, in other words, is not to those who possess power, but to those who want to challenge them. And the real value of censorship is to those who do not wish their authority to be challenged. The right to ‘subject each others’ fundamental beliefs to criticism’ is the bedrock of an open, diverse society. Once we give up such a right in the name of ‘tolerance’ or ‘respect’, we constrain our ability to challenge those in power, and therefore to challenge injustice.

Tweeted on March 2, 2020 https://twitter.com/michaelmalice/status/1234604154741497857, repeated subsequently.