Censorship In Books Quotes

• 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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• Every burned book or house enlightens the world; every suppressed or expunged word reverberates through the earth from side to side.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Book, House, Atheism

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.299, Library of America

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• Did you ever hear anyone say, 'That work had better be banned because I might read it and it might be very damaging to me'?

  Joseph Henry Jackson

  Wisdom, Might, Banned

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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.

  Ray Bradbury

  Book, Way, Censorship

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

  Potter Stewart

  Freedom Of Speech, Society, Censoring Books

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

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• If some books are deemed most baneful and their sale forbid, how then with deadlier facts, not dreams of doting men? Those whom books will hurt will not be proof against events. Events, not books should be forbid.

  Herman Melville

  Dream, Hurt, Fear

  1854 'The Encantadas, Sketch Eighth', in Putnam's Monthly Magazine, May.

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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 is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever.

  Noam Chomsky

  Hero, Imagination, Forever

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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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• There's more than one way to be a girl

  Lauren Faust

  Girl, Censoring Books, Way

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• Every burned book enlightens the world.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Book, World, Censorship

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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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• [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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• Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.

  Heinrich Heine

  Reading, Book, Evil

  Almansor: A Tragedy l. 245 (1823)

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• If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all — except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.

  John F. Kennedy

  Wise, Strong, Reading

  Saturday Review, p. 44, October 29, 1960.

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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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• Without free speech no search for Truth is possible; without free speech no discovery of Truth is useful.

  Charles Bradlaugh

  Discovery, Freedom Of Speech, Truth Is

  Charles Bradlaugh's speech at Hall of Science (circa 1880), as quoted in Annie Besant "Annie Besant: An Autobiography", 1893.

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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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  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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  One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.

  Golda Meir

  Inspiration, Past, Trying

  "My Life". Book by Golda Meir, 1975.

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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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• Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody can read.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Book, Censorship, Logical

  "Literary Censorship in England". Current Opinion, Volume 55, No. 5 (p. 378), November 1913.

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

  Max Lerner

  Censoring Books, Purging, Frail

  Max Lerner (1959). “The Unfinished Country”

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