Banned Books Quotes

I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks.

...one may not wish to read Ulysses; that is quite understandable. But when such a real artist in words, as Joyce undoubtedly is, seeks to draw a true picture of the lower middle class in a European city, ought it be impossible for the American public legally to see that picture?

He tore away half the prize story sharply and wiped himself with it. Then he pulled up his trousers, braced and buttoned himself. He pulled back the jerky shaky door of the jakes and came forth from the gloom into the air.

… I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering it things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.

...it went so high it went out of sight a moment and she was trembling in every limb from being bent so far back he had a full view high up above her knee no-one ever not even on the swing or wading and she wasn't ashamed and he wasn't either to look in the immodest way like that because he couldn't resist the sight of the wondrous revealment half offered.

Some changes happen deep down inside of you. And the truth is, only you know about them. Maybe that's the way it's supposed to be.

I mean—hell, I been surprised how sane you guys all are. As near as I can tell you’re not any crazier than the average asshole on the street

If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to always tell the difference.

Oh Celie, unbelief is a terrible thing. And so is the hurt we cause others unknowingly. Pray for us.

Hain’t we got all the fools in town on our side? and ain’t that a big enough majority in any town?

God forbid that any book should be banned. The practice is as indefensible as infanticide.

Can you imagine going around your neighborhood with a piece of paper that says, “I went into the LIBRARY and found a BOOK with a DIRTY WORD in it, and now I want it LOCKED IN THE BASEMENT and GUARDED by a WOLVERINE so that THE PRECIOUS CHILDREN do not see the WORD. Please sign my petition.”

The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion.

We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.

The paper burns, but the words fly away.

Every burned book enlightens the world.

I don't think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains. 

The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.

All these people talk so eloquently about getting back to good old-fashioned values. Well, as an old poop I can remember back to when we had those old-fashioned values, and I say let's get back to the good old-fashioned First Amendment of the good old-fashioned Constitution of the United States—and to hell with the censors! Give me knowledge or give me death!