Thomas I. Emerson Quotes

Censorship is the height of vanity.

Unfortunately for governments like that of Iran, when they forbid something, people become more interested.

The prime goal of censorship is to promote ignorance, whether it is done via lying and bowdlerized school texts or by attacking individual books.

It's very worrying at this time in the world that any point of view should be prohibited, that's banned, there are heretics that should be burned at the stake.

Censorship is advertising paid by the government.

Censorship feeds the dirty mind more than the four-letter word itself.

I do not favor the gag order.

The Iranian government advocates free speech... but there's no freedom after you've spoken

It is pretty safe to assume that any given censor is a fool. The very fact that he is a censor indicates that.

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

There is nothing more dangerous for a population than self-censorship by fear.

Once you get used to censorship, sometimes you self-censor.

Censorship is always cause for celebration. It is always an opportunity because it reveals fear of reform. It means that the power position is so weak that you have got to care what people think.

There have always been people like you, Nicholas Flamel. People who think they know what's best, who decide what people should see and read and listen to, who ultimately try to shape how the rest of the world think and acts. I've spent my entire life fighting the likes of you.

Censorship is the commonest social blasphemy because it is mostly concealed, built into us by indolence, self-interest and cowardice.

truth ... is the first casualty of tyranny.

What does censorship reveal? It reveals fear.

If art, all art, is concerned with truth, then a society in denial will not find much use for it.

If you ask someone whether our Constitutional rights are being flushed down the porcelain oubliette, and their response is, "If I answer that honestly they'll arrest me," then you already have your answer.

I have read somewhere that in a totalitarian system martyrdom does better than thought.

You should not be subjected to the pressures, the intimidation, whether by Government or by the private sector, which would force you into self-censorship.

I don't mind ratings boards. As a viewer, you have the right not to see a film.

The fact is that certain themes cannot be celebrated in words, and tyranny is one of them. No one ever wrote a good book in praise of the Inquisition.

Truth can be outraged by silence quite as cruelly as by speech.

It's very difficult to censor anything anymore.