Orson Scott Card Quotes

Dictators are as scared of books as they are of cannon.

Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves.

The public use of a man's reason must be free at all times…. But I hear people clamor on all sides: Don't argue! The military officer says: Don't argue, drill! The tax collector: Don't argue, pay! The minister: Don't argue, believe!

The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.

Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.

Whenever one tries to suppress doubt, there is tyranny.

Some people only speak of freedom of speech while they're out of power. Once they're in power, they're ruthless in suppressing the rights of others.

Liberty is meaningless if it is only the liberty to agree with those in power.

The doctrine of blind obedience and unqualified submission to any human power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism, and ought to have no place among Republicans and Christians.

The enemies of freedom do not argue; they shout and they shoot.

If your regime is not strong enough to handle a joke, then you don't have a regime.

In Russia all tyrants believe poets to be their worst enemies.

A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.

And why do we, who say we oppose tyranny and demand freedom of speech, allow people to go to prison and be vilified, and magazines to be closed down on the spot, for suggesting another version of history.

The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.

Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.

Academic freedom is being lost by a great many people who dare to challenge Darwinism. That's a terrifying situation. That's contrary to the principles of science.

Once you permit those who are convinced of their own superior rightness to censor and silence and suppress those who hold contrary opinions, just at that moment the citadel has been surrendered.

I believe that the power of literature is stronger than the power of tyranny.

Freedom of speech is always under attack by Fascist mentality, which exists in all parts of the world, unfortunately.

What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don't expect freedom to survive very long.

A state that suppresses all freedom of speech, and which by imposing the most terrible punishments, treats each and every attempt at criticism, however morally justified, and every suggestion for improvement as plotting to high treason, is a state that breaks an unwritten law.

The tyrant is only the slave turned inside out.

Our political life is closed, and our freedoms usurped, and our people are oppressed, and fearful… if you don’t say what the ruler wants, you’re exiled beyond the sun.

Nothing overshadows truth so completely as authority.