I'm not OP, but to me that means: 1- Ideas don't make people - actions do. If someone is a good neighbor, citizen, friend and father/mother, a valuable and con

I'm not OP, but to me that means: 1- Ideas don't make people - actions do. If someone is a good neighbor, citizen, friend and father/mother, a valuable and contributing member of their community, that their beliefs on abortion/politics/gay marriage/etc carry little weight compared to the years of actions and toil that they put in to make our society better. 2- The person who has the ideas you don't like shares more ideas that you do like than you don't. Most people want to see America grow, they want to see their children live free, avoid unnecessary harm, etc. The sliver of disagreement is small compared to the pie of agreement. 3- That we are all inherently flawed and primitive and therefore will be wrong 99% of the time. This means that even if you believe with all your conviction you are right on a point, you can remember you are probably just as wrong on more points than you are right on. It's called practicing thoughts of humility, it's a virtue we should all strive for. Among others.