QuoteProject
Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads.
George Bernard Shaw
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Censorship restricts knowledge and literature until only unimportant works are accessible.

This quote by George Bernard Shaw underscores the absurdity of censorship, suggesting that when society limits access to literature, it ultimately leads to a situation where only trivial or ignored books are available. It reflects a critique of censorship's impact on intellectual freedom, arguing that true discourse and thought require a diversity of perspectives, and that its absence results in the loss of meaningful knowledge and enlightenment.

Themes

CensorshipKnowledgeFreedomLiteratureIntellectualThought

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in discussions about the importance of free speech during a literature class.

More from George Bernard Shaw

What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
George Bernard ShawRead
Marriage is good enough for the lower classes: they have facilities for desertion that are denied to us.
George Bernard ShawRead
Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature!
George Bernard ShawRead
Those who talk most about the blessings of marriage and the constancy of its vows are the very people who declare that if the chain were broken and the prisoners left free to choose, the whole social fabric would fly asunder. You cannot have the argument both ways. If the prisoner is happy, why lock him in? If he is not, why pretend that he is?
George Bernard ShawRead
Treat a friend as a person who may someday become your enemy; an enemy as a person who may someday become your friend.
George Bernard ShawRead
The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.
George Bernard ShawRead

Similar quotes

There is certainly a universal and unconscious propensity to impose a rhythm even when one hears a series of identical sounds at constant intervals... We tend to hear the sound of a digital clock, for example, as "tick-tock, tick-tock" - even though it is actually "tick tick, tick tick.
Oliver SacksRead
A man of the world must seem to be what he wishes to be thought.
Jean De La BruyereRead
The solution of the problem of life is life itself. Life is not attained by reason and analysis but first of all by living.
Thomas MertonRead
I am dying with the help of too many physicians.
Alexander The GreatRead
Real hunger is when one man regards another man as something to eat.
Tadeusz BorowskiRead
In other centuries, human beings wanted to be saved, or improved, or freed, or educated. But in our century, they want to be entertained. The great fear is not of disease or death, but of boredom. A sense of time on our hands, a sense of nothing to do. A sense that we are not amused.
Michael CrichtonRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.