Quotes on Book Banning

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

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.

The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book.

[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.

Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail.

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

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.

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

The first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.

Any book worth banning is a book worth reading.

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.