Putting Together the Words to Address Censorship by Fran Joyce
For our banned books issue this year, instead of words related to censorship, I selected fifteen quotes about the importance of words and the dangers of censorship. There are so many outstanding quotes, it was hard to choose, because censorship has been around in some form since the beginning of civilization.
“Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won’t have s much censorship because we won’t have as much fear.” Judy Blume
"Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there." - Clare Booth Luce
“There is more than one way to burn books. And the world is full of people running around with lit matches.” Ray Bradbury
“Every burned book enlightens the world.” Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
“What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.” Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
“It’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
“Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.” Heinrich Heine
"If large numbers of people believe in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it. But if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them." George Orwell
"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
“Submitting to censorship is to enter the seductive world of 'The Giver': the world where there are no bad words and no bad deeds. But it is also the world where choice has been taken away and reality distorted. And that is the most dangerous world of all.” Lois Lowry
"Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too." – Voltaire
“The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame." Oscar Wilde
“Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance." Lyndon Baines Johnson
“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” — Benjamin Franklin
“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.” Nadine Gordimer
“Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.” Malala Yousafzai
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