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I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppress any of them.
Robertson Davies
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote emphasizes that true literacy and love for books leads to a desire for openness, not suppression.

Robertson Davies expresses the belief that those who are genuinely literate and have a deep appreciation for literature will not seek to censor or suppress any books. True love for books fosters a spirit of inclusivity and a recognition of the diverse perspectives that literature can offer, suggesting that it is ignorance or insecurity that leads to attempts at suppression.

Themes

LiteracyBooksSuppressLiteratureFreedom

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about censorship in schools, this quote can highlight the importance of exposing students to a wide range of literature.

More from Robertson Davies

Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons.
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Pessimism is a very easy way out because it is a short view of life. If you look at what is happening around us today, you can't help but feel that life is a terrible complexity of problems. But if you look back a few thousand years, you realize that we have advanced fantastically. If you take a long view, I do not see how you can be pessimistic about the future of mankind.
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This is one of the cruelties of the theatre of life; we all think of ourselves as stars and rarely recognize it when we are indeed mere supporting characters or even supernumeraries.
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Everything matters. The Universe is approximately fifteen billion years old, and I swear that in all that time, nothing has ever happened that has not mattered, has not contributed in some way to the totality.
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The egotist is all surface; underneath is a pulpy mess and a lot of self-doubt. But the egoist may be yielding and even deferential in things he doesn't consider important; in anything that touches his core he is remorseless.
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The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealized past.
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