Banned Books Quotes

• Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  Book, Ignorance, Ideas

  Johnson, Lyndon B. (1965). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963-1964”, p.285, Best Books on

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• Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.

  William O. Douglas

  Teaching, Rights In America, Political Revolution

  "The One Un-American Act". William O. Douglas' speech to the Author's Guild Council in New York on receiving the 1951 Lauterbach Award, December 3, 1952.

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• Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.

  Voltaire

  Inspirational, Thinking Of You, Knowledge

  Voltaire (1762). “Works”, p.114

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• [I]t's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.

  Judy Blume

  Real, Book, Fire

  FaceBook post by Judy Blume from Oct 18, 2013

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• Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education.

  Alfred Whitney Griswold

  Education, Running, Fear

  "Quora: What Does Freedom of Speech Mean?". www.yahoo.com. May 13, 2017.

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• Censorship, like charity, should begin at home, but, unlike charity, it should end there.

  Clare Boothe Luce

  Home, Government, Library

  "Internet regulation 'a threat to civil liberties'" by Patrick Barkham, www.theguardian.com. May 3, 2000.

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• Don't join the book burners!

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Book, Library, Censorship

  Remarks at Dartmouth College Commencement, Hanover, N.H., 14 June 1953

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• Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight.

  Stephen Chbosky

  Book, Sight, Giving

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• Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.

  Potter Stewart

  Freedom Of Speech, Society, Censorship In Books

  "United States v. Ginzburg, 383 U.S. 463". Dissenting opinion, 1965.

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• There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.

  Ray Bradbury

  Running, Book, People

  Ray Bradbury (2012). “Fahrenheit 451: A Novel”, p.209, Simon and Schuster

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• There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist/Unitarian, Irish/Italian/Octogenarian/Zen Buddhist, Zionist/Seventh-day Adventist, Women's Lib/Republican, Mattachine/FourSquareGospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme.

  Ray Bradbury

  Running, Buddhist, Book

  Ray Bradbury (2012). “Fahrenheit 451: A Novel”, p.209, Simon and Schuster

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• Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

  James Madison

  Exercise, Secular Society, Law

  Virginia. General Assembly. House of Delegates, J. W. Randolph, James Madison (1850). “The Virginia Report of 1799-1800: Touching the Alien and Sedition Laws; Together with the Virginia Resolutions of December 21, 1798, Including the Debate and Proceedings Thereon in the House of Delegates of Virginia and Other Documents Illustrative of the Report and Resolutions”, p.136

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• I hate it that Americans are taught to fear some books and some ideas as though they were diseases.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Hate, Book, Ideas

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• Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it.

  Mark Twain

  Funny, Witty, Baby

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• Every burned book enlightens the world.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Book, World, Censorship

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• There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.

  Joseph Brodsky

  Education, Reading, Book

  "The Balancing Act: Mastering the Competing Demands of Leadership". Book by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Al Switzler and Ron McMillan, 1996.

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• Don't join the book burners. Do not think you are going to conceal thoughts by concealing evidence that they ever existed.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Lying, Book, Thinking

  Remarks at Dartmouth College Commencement, Hanover, N.H., 14 June 1953

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• If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Printed Books, Printed Word, Offending

  Benjamin Franklin (1945). “Autobiographical writings”

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• Yes, books are dangerous. They should be dangerous - they contain ideas.

  Pete Hautman

  Book, Ideas, Censorship

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• They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Inspirational, Happiness, Peace

  Benjamin Franklin, William-Temple Franklin (1818). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of (the Same), Continued to the Time of His Death by William Temple Franklin. - London, H. Colburn 1818”, p.270

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• Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance.

  Laurie Halse Anderson

  Children, Father, Ignorance

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• To reject the word is to reject the human search.

  Max Lerner

  Censorship In Books, Censoring Books, Purging

  Max Lerner (1959). “The Unfinished Country”

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• The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Anger, Reading

  The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 19 (1891)

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  What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.

  Salman Rushdie

  Honesty, Integrity, Expression

  Salman Rushdie (1990). “In good faith”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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• There is more than one way to burn a book.

  Ray Bradbury

  Book, Way, Censorship

  Ray Bradbury (2012). “Fahrenheit 451: A Novel”, p.209, Simon and Schuster

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