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In general, an implementation must be conservative in its sending behavior, and liberal in its receiving behavior.

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Notes from Wikiquote

Often shortened to Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send.

More quotes by Jon Postel

Of course, there isn’t any "God of the Internet." The Internet works because a lot of people cooperate to do things together.

TCP implementations will follow a general principle of robustness: be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jon Postel (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.