Secretary of State John Kerry defended the "right to be stupid" as a right that all Americans have if they want it to German students in Berlin.

John Kerry told German students on Tuesday Feb. 26 that in America "you have a right to be stupid if you want to be."

The phrase was made in a defense of freedom of speech, religion, and thought in the United States. He continued to describe his memories of cold-war era Germany, and how much Germany has changed since then.

Kerry told the students in Berlin, "As a country, as a society, we live and breathe the idea of religious freedom and religious tolerance, whatever the religion, and political freedom and political tolerance, whatever the point of view."

The speech was made on Kerry's second stop on his inaugural trip as secretary of state.

He added, "People have sometimes wondered about why our Supreme Court allows one group or another to march in a parade even though it's the most provocative thing in the world and they carry signs that are an insult to one group or another."

He said, "The reason is, that's freedom, freedom of speech. In America you have a right to be stupid - if you want to be," prompting laughter from the crowd.

He went on to explain that although he my not approve of bigoted or racist beliefs, he does believe that the public has a right to believe what it wants.

He said, "We tolerate it. We somehow make it through that. Now, I think that's a virtue. I think that's something worth fighting for. The important thing is to have the tolerance to say, you know, you can have a different point of view."

Kerry made the engaging speech on his first international trip since he became Secretary of State on February 1 this year.

After today's stop in Berlin, he is scheduled to visit Paris, Rome, Ankara, Cairo, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Doha before returning to Washington on March 6, according to Yahoo News.

While talking to U.S. Diplomats and the students, Kerry reminisced about the time in the 1950's that he spent in Berlin as the son of an American diplomat.

Kerry retold the story of sneaking across the 'Berlin Wall' to East Berlin with his bike.

"I used to have great adventures. My bicycle and I were best friends. And I biked all around this city. I remember biking down [West Berlin's main shopping avenue] and seeing nothing but rubble. This was in 1954...the war was very much still on people's minds," he told the diplomats.

"One day, using my diplomatic passport, I biked through the checkpoint right into the east sector and noticed very quickly how dark...and sort of unhappy people looked," he added.

He continued to tell the students, "As a 12-year-old, I saw the difference between East and West. I never made another trip like that. But I have never forgotten it. And now, it's vanished, vanished."