The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.
Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.
Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail.
Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it.
There is more than one way to burn a book.
There's more than one way to be a girl
There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.
What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.
If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.
There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.
[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.
Censorship, like charity, should begin at home, but, unlike charity, it should end there.
Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody can read.
Yes, books are dangerous. They should be dangerous - they contain ideas.
To reject the word is to reject the human search.
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
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. Every minority, be it Baptist/Unitarian, Irish/Italian/Octogenarian/Zen Buddhist, Zionist/Seventh-day Adventist, Women's Lib/Republican, Mattachine/FourSquareGospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme.
The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book.
The first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.
or simply:
