Censorship is the act of suppressing or controlling information, ideas, or expressions that are deemed inappropriate or offensive by those in power. Quotes about censorship often highlight the importance of freedom of speech and the dangers of silencing different perspectives. These quotes emphasize the essential role of open dialogue and the potential harm that can arise when ideas are censored. They remind us that censorship limits our ability to learn, grow, and challenge established norms, ultimately hindering progress and stifling creativity.
All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. — George Bernard Shaw
Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind. — William Westmoreland
The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen. — Tommy Smothers
As Pa said, censorship encouraged people to believe nonsense. — John Christopher
To silence criticism is to silence freedom. — Sidney Hook
Short Censorship Quotes
Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech. — Benjamin Franklin
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost. — Thomas Jefferson
Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy. — Walter Cronkite
The paper burns, but the words fly away. — Rabbi Akiva
Don't join the book burners! — Dwight D. Eisenhower
He who destroys a good book kills reason itself. — John Milton
The victimization of children is nowhere forbidden; what is forbidden is to write about it. — Alice Miller
A sodomite got very excited looking at a zoology text. Does this make it pornography? — Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
On upholding openness and cooperation — Xi Jinping
Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first. — Brian Dean
Censorship Image Quotes
Book Censorship Quotes
If none of us ever read a book that was "dangerous," had a friend who was "different," or joined an organization that advocated "change," we would all be the kind of people Joe McCarthy wants. — Edward R. Murrow
I don't want to be shut out from the truth. If they ban books, they might as well lock us away from the world. — Rory Edwards
Obscenity is not a quality inherent in a book or picture, but is solely and exclusively a contribution of the reading mind, and hence cannot be defined in terms of the qualities of a book or picture. — Theodore Schroeder
Books of apostates, heretics, schismatics, and all other writers defending heresy or schism or in any attacking the foundations of religion, are altogether prohibited. — Pope Leo XIII
Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime. — Potter Stewart
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. — Claude Adrien Helvetius
[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. — Judy Blume
There is more than one way to burn a book. — Ray Bradbury
The abuse dies in a day; but the denial slays the life of the people and entombs the hope of the race. — Charles Bradlaugh
If in other lands the press and books and literature of all kinds are censored, we must redouble our efforts here to keep them free — Franklin D. Roosevelt
Libraries should be open to all - except the censor. — John F. Kennedy
When a library expels a book of mine and leaves an unexpurgated Bible lying around where unprotected youth and age can get hold of it, the deep unconscious irony of it delights me and doesn't anger me. — Mark Twain
Yes, books are dangerous. They should be dangerous - they contain ideas. — Pete Hautman
Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever. — Noam Chomsky
Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance. — Laurie Halse Anderson
There's more than one way to be a girl — Lauren Faust
Better a thousandfold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech. — Charles Bradlaugh
It didn't come from the Government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God. — Ray Bradbury
Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. — John F. Kennedy
Self Censorship Quotes
Self-censorship is insulting to the self. Timidity is a hopeless way forward. — Ai Weiwei
Self-censorship, the most important and most successful form of censorship, is rampant. Debate is identified with dissent, which is in turn identified with disloyalty. There is a widespread feeling that, in this new, open-ended emergency, we may not be able to 'afford' our traditional freedoms. — Susan Sontag
SeLF censorsHIP?
Not my strong suit...I dont want to be a total d o u c h e b a g , but a little bit of one. — Misha Collins
But poets were not considered dangerous and they were advised to exercise self-censorship. At most, poets were requested not to write at all. I took advantage of this negative liberty. — Eugenio Montale
The worst evil is - and that's the product of censorship - is the self-censorship, because that twists spines, that destroys my character because I have to think something else and say something else, I have to always control myself. — Milos Forman
I think the enemy is self-censorship. In a free society the biggest danger is that you're afraid to the point where you censor yourself. — Tim Robbins
Censorship is the commonest social blasphemy because it is mostly concealed, built into us by indolence, self-interest and cowardice. — John Osborne
Self-censorship is a lie to yourself; if you are going to be trying to seriously create art, to create literary art, and you decide to hold back, to censor yourself, then you are a fool to yourself and it would be better that you kept your mouth shut and did not speak. — Salman Rushdie
And yet on the other hand unless warinesse be us'd, as good almost kill a Man as kill a good Book; who kills a Man kills a reasonable creature, Gods Image, but hee who destroyes a good Booke, kills reason it selfe, kills the Image of God, as it were in the eye. — John Milton
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. — Alfred-Maurice de Zayas
Censor Quotes
Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor - over each other. — Thomas Jefferson
The more we oblige, the more we self-censor, the more we appease, the bolder the enemy gets. — Ayaan Hirsi Ali
What is occurring on college campuses is about power and control - speech is impeded as a last resort, used when people fail to self-censor in response to a threat of crippling stigma and the destruction of their capacity to earn. — Bret Weinstein
Freedom of the press is essential to the preservation of a democracy; but there is a difference between freedom and license. Editorialists who tell downright lies in order to advance their own agendas do more to discredit the press than all the censors in the world. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
The video of 'Paranoid Android' has been censored by MTV. They took all nipples out of the cartoon, but they had no problem with the scene in which a man cuts off his own arms and legs. — Thom Yorke
I think free speech is probably the coolest thing we have in this country, and again, you can label it hate speech and dismiss it, and then you're allowed to censor it. — Dana Carvey
When you have some kid, who works for Twitter in the Philippines, censoring a Nobel prize winning scientist, speaking about his area of expertise, I think we've lost the plot. — Konstantin Kisin
People are used to being stimulated. People are drunk on entertainment and when you're going out and seeing movies where 200 people are machine gunned down and vampires are tearing people's throats out, and I'm not saying that is bad or it should be censored, but people are drunk on stimuli. — Alex Jones
I never make moral judgments; I'm not qualified to do so. I am not a censor, a priest, or a politician. — Federico Fellini
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. — Archibald MacLeish
Censoring Books Quotes
Reading develops cognitive skills. It trains our minds to think critically and to question what you are told. This is why dictators censor or ban books. It's why it was illegal to teach slaves to read. It's why girls in developing countries have acid thrown in their faces when they walk to school. — Karin Slaughter
Young minds - young brains - need stories and ideas like the ones in those [censored and banned] books in order to grow. They need ideas that you disagree with. They need ideas that I disagree with. Or they'll never be able to figure out what ideas they believe in. — Lev Grossman
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
Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them....I know they are as lively and as vigorously productive as those fabulous dragon's teeth and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men. — John Milton
Those tragic comedians, the Chamber of Commerce red hunters, the Women's Christian Temperance Union smellers, the censors of books, the Klan regulators, the Methodist prowlers, the Baptist guardians of sacred vessels-we have the national mentality of a police lieutenant. — H. L. Mencken
The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education. — Alfred Whitney Griswold
A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life, and as such it must surely be a necessary commodity. — Penelope Fitzgerald
The censors don't bother with fantasy books, especially old ones. They can't understand them. They think it's all kids' stuff. They'd die if they knew what The Chronicles of Narnia were really about. — G. Willow Wilson
Children deprived of words become school dropouts; dropouts deprived of hope behave delinquently. Amateur censors blame delinquency on reading immoral books and magazines, when in fact, the inability to read anything is the basic trouble. — Peter S. Jennison
No Censor Quotes
It is our attitude toward free thought and free expression that will determine our fate. There must be no limit on the range of temperate discussion, no limits on thought. No subject must be taboo. No censor must preside at our assemblies. — William O. Douglas
No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free, no one ever will. Chance is the pseudonym of God when he did not want to sign. — Anatole France
Photographs have always been the tar baby of censors and obscenity laws. Literature can certainly (if it's any good) conjure up the most pornographic imagination. But photographs dare to be real. No matter how contrived or constructed they are, there's that damn body staring you in the face. — Susie Bright
Usually the audience has no idea that the censored version of whatever movie they're watching isn't the original. — Todd Solondz
Countries that censor news and information must recognize that from an economic standpoint, there is no distinction between censoring political speech and commercial speech. If businesses in your nations are denied access to either type of information, it will inevitably impact on growth. — Hillary Clinton
I am opposed to censorship. Censors are pretty sure fools. I have no confidence in the suppression of everyday facts. — James Harvey Robinson
I did not agree..to having my article censored. ...The published report of the conference gives my name as a participant, but you will not find in it the paper I read. ...Scientists as a group are no more, and no less, influenced by emotional and irrational reactions than other people are. — John Yudkin
When a critic sets himself up as an arbiter of morality, a judge of the matter and not the manner of a work, he is no longer a critic; he is a censor. — Edward Albee
The real heroes are the librarians and teachers who at no small risk to themselves refuse to lie down and play dead for censors. — Bruce Coville
Americans are tired of the games and the lies of today's media. They want the truth. Imagine this. No censors, no barricades, no statists. We will be able to engage viewers directly on subjects that matter most to them, from finances to civil liberties to foreign policy. — Ron Paul
The first thing dictators do is finish free press, to establish censorship. There is no doubt that a free press is the first enemy of dictatorship. — Fidel Castro
Political correctness is neither political nor is it correct. It amounts to social censorship, and the sooner we spit it out, the better. — Jeff Cooper
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear. — Harry S. Truman
I have never feared that the revolution would be engendered by the universities; but that at them a whole generation of revolutionaries must be formed, unless the evil is restrained, seems to me certain.... The greatest and consequently most urgent evil now is the press.... All journals, pamphlets in Germany must be under a censorship. — Klemens Von Metternich
Intelligence is the capacity to receive, decode and transmit information efficiently. Stupidity is blockage of this process at any point. Bigotry, ideologies etc. block the ability to receive; robotic reality-tunnels block the ability to decode or integrate new signals; censorship blocks transmission. — Robert Anton Wilson
There is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment. — John F. Kennedy
When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say. — George R. R. Martin
Here we have bishops, priests, and deacons, a Censorship Board, vigilant librarians, confraternities and sodalities, Duce Maria, Legions of Mary, Knights of this Christian order and Knights of that one, all surrounding the sinner's free will in an embattled circle. — Sean O'Casey
Decentralization is only a means towards the key to blockchain value, trust minimization, which brings a host of benefits: immutability, censorship resistance, global seamlessness, monetary and financial sovereignty. Other kinds of decentralization are security theater. — Nick Szabo
Be a curator of your life. Slowly cut things out until you’re left only with what you love, with what’s necessary, with what makes you happy. — Leo Babauta
Let me tell you clearly if you get a wife through the Facebook, you would lose her through the Youtube. — Enoch Adeboye
Anger, pain, resentment, and even hate are best healed through compassionate conversation, not through censorship and derision. — Lex Fridman
It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creeds into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics. — Robert A. Heinlein
Few are obviously evil so it takes outsiders time to recognize, but now I can't deny the evidence: claiming immutability & censorship resistance on the one hand, attacking trust minimization principles on the other, claiming decentralization while devolving into centralized cult. — Nick Szabo
I prefer to do movies, just for the simple fact that in TV, there’s not much of a guarantee. They can pull the plug on you. — Vivica Fox
Thing that kills an entrepreneurial, experimental culture is when people get punished for running an experiment that proves a hypothesis false. — Jeff Lawson
Fake news and rumors thrive online because few verify what’s real and always bias towards content that reinforces their own biases. — Ryan Higa
They talk. We live. Who cares what they say? — Jay-Z
It is certainly true that the architects of Communist expansion are taking every possible measure to impose their dogmas upon the world. — Prince Ali Salman Aga Khan Aly Khan
Freedom of speech means that you shall not do something to people either for the views they have, or the views they express, or the words they speak or write. — Hugo Black
If you want to see who rules over you, see who you’re not allowed to criticize. — Naval Ravikant
Once wide coercive powers are given to government agencies… such powers cannot be effectively controlled. — Friedrich August von Hayek
Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won't have as much censorship because we won't have as much fear. — Judy Blume
In Conclusion
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