The life you have led doesn't need to be the only life you have.
Anna QuindlenRead
Ideas are only lethal if you suppress and don't discuss them. Ignorance is not bliss, it's stupid. Banning books shows you don't trust your kids to think and you don't trust yourself to be able to talk to them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Suppressing ideas stifles growth and understanding, and banning books shows a lack of trust in open discussion.
This quote emphasizes the importance of open dialogue and the dangers of suppressing ideas. By suggesting that ignorance leads to foolishness, Quindlen argues that banning books not only shows a distrust in children's ability to think critically but also reflects an adult's insecurity in engaging with difficult topics. Encouraging discussion, rather than censorship, fosters intellectual growth and empowerment.
Themes
IdeasDiscussionEducationCensorshipTrust
In practice
Example use cases
In a classroom setting to promote open dialogue about controversial topics.
More from Anna Quindlen
All quotes →The future is built on brains, not prom court, as most people can tell you after attending their high school reunion. But you'd never know it by talking to kids or listening to the messages they get from the culture and even from their schools.
Anna QuindlenRead
I read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me.
Anna QuindlenRead
With reference to the younger generation..."If the experience of their exhausted, insomniac, dispirited elders makes them decide they'd prefer not to go straight from the classroom to the cubicle to the coffin, it doesn't mean they're lazy. It means they're sane."
Anna QuindlenRead
I conveniently forgot to remember that people only have two hands, or, as another parent once said of having a third child, it's time for a zone defense instead of man-to-man.
Anna QuindlenRead
I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make my marriage vows mean what they say. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh.
Anna QuindlenRead
Similar quotes
Children are more influenced by sermons you act than by sermons you preach.
David O. MckayRead
Negative gender stereotypes related to girls' education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics begin as early as primary school and have the devastating effect of making them doubt their own potential.
Antonio GuterresRead
Anything that is worth teaching can be presented in many different ways. These multiple ways can make use of our multiple intelligences.
Howard GardnerRead
My purpose... to go on with my heart and soul, devoting all my energies to Girl Scouts, and heart and hand with them, we will make our lives and the lives of the future girls happy, healthy and holy.
Juliette Gordon LowRead
Education is that whole system of human training within and without the school house walls, which molds and develops men.
W. E. B. Du BoisRead
When you're a biographer, you want to explore the very things that your subject didn't care to talk about.
Ron ChernowRead