"Liberalism has always had two faces. From one side, toleration is the pursuit of an ideal form of life. From the other, it is the search for terms of peace among different ways of life"
—John Gray, 'Two Faces of Liberalism' https://www.amazon.com/Two-Faces-Liberalism-John-Gray/dp/1565846788/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=shtwitter-20&linkId=b3f7f7f4ddb23813a2752f0e7c097de2&language=en_US

Important, underappreciated point from John Gray:

"Ancient societies were more hospitable to differences than ours. This is partly because the idea of human equality was weak or absent. Modernity begins not with the recognition of difference but with a demand for uniformity"

As Gray writes: "It is a mark of an illiberal regime that conflicts of value are viewed as signs of error"

One side, today, is worse than the other, but both are animated by an illiberal impulse because they are not willing to accommodate pluralism in the pursuit of the Good

"Liberal universalists are right that some values are universal. They are wrong in identifying universal values with their own particular ideals"

This is rather prescient:

"If diversity in ways of life has merely heuristic value as a means of discovering the best life, it is endangered by intellectual progress. A liberal society has no value in itself. It is no more a stage on the way to a rational consensus"