Freedom To Read Quotes

“Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.”
― Henry Louis Gates Jr

“Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak

“A word to the unwise.
Torch every book.
Char every page.
Burn every word to ash.
Ideas are incombustible.
And therein lies your real fear.”
― Ellen Hopkins

“Yes, books are dangerous. They should be dangerous - they contain ideas.”
― Pete Hautman

“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.”
― Stephen Chbosky

“I hate it that Americans are taught to fear some books and some ideas as though they were diseases.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

“Banning books is just another form of bullying. It's all about fear and an assumption of power. The key is to address the fear and deny the power.”
― James Howe

“Having the freedom to read and the freedom to choose is one of the best gifts my parents ever gave me.”
― Judy Blume

“The school board banned one of Maya Angelou's books, so the librarian had to take down her poster.

I fished it out of the trash.

She must be a great writer if the school board is scared of her.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak: The Graphic Novel

“Well, the man who first translated the bible into English was burned at the stake, and they've been at it ever since. Must be all that adultery, murder and incest. But not to worry. It's back on the shelves.”
― Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

“Freedom to write, freedom to read, freedom to own material that you believe is worth defending means you're going to have to stand up for stuff you don't believe is worth defending, even stuff you find actively distasteful, because laws are big blunt instruments that do not differentiate between what you like and what you don't, because prosecutors are humans and bear grudges and fight for re-election, because one person's obscenity is another person's art.

Because if you don't stand up for the stuff you don't like, when they come for the stuff you do like, you've already lost.”
― Neil Gaiman

“When I read a daring book or listen to rebellious music, I feel like I've found what freedom really means.”
― Carla H. Krueger