Dwight D. Eisenhower Quotes

We see book-burning as a crime against humanity: it's intolerable because books represent a kind of freedom to us.

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

The long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only weapon against bad ideas is better ideas.

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.

To limit the press is to insult a nation; to prohibit reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves: such a prohibition ought to fill them with disdain.

A final argument for broad freedom of expression is its effect on the character of individuals in a society. Citizens in a free society must have courage — the courage to hear not only unwelcome political speech but novel and shocking ideas in science and the arts.

I shall stand for freedom of thought and expression in a place where it has been trampled and penalized.

To limit the press is to insult a nation; to prohibit reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves.

I don't think anyone should be banned. If you don't like a book, set it aside.

The lawsuits we are seeing today to ostracize and prevent different ideas recall previous eras. We must understand that Islam has given man freedom of thought. Islam's history proves that no one is immune to error except the Prophet.

If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all — except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.

Don't join the book burners... Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book.

Marks on paper are free - free speech - press - pictures all go together I suppose.

To become self-aware, people must be allowed to hear a plurality of opinions and then make up their own minds. They must be allowed to say, write and publish whatever they want. Freedom of expression is the most basic, but fundamental, right. Without it, human beings are reduced to automatons.

Americans may not always live up to the Bill of Rights, but Americans do not ban books.

As long as I don't write about the government, religion, politics, and other institutions, I am free to print anything.

One man's blasphemy doesn't override other people's free-speech rights, their freedom to publish, freedom of thought.

At least in America, you have freedom of speech, which is a good thing. It's just a question of whether you're allowed to use it on 'Fox News'.

I live in America. I have the right to write whatever I want. And it's equaled by another right just as powerful: the right not to read it. Freedom of speech includes the freedom to offend people.

Censorship has had a long history in the western world. Book banning is as old as books.

Put that [news]paper in your pocket, Baron, and should you hear the reality of our liberty, the freedom of the press questioned, show them this paper, and tell them where you found it.

... not likely to be read if left alone, but, if persecuted, it will be generally read. Every man in the United States will think it a duty to buy a copy, in vindication of his right to buy, and read what he pleases.

If the 1st Amendment means anything, it means that the state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his own house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.

Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye.

Suppressing ideas never makes them go away.