Censor, n. An officer of certain governments, employed to suppress the works of genius. Among the Romans the censor was an inspector of public morals, but the public morals of modern nations will not bear inspection.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
If we can’t stamp out literature in the country, we can at least stop its being brought in from outside.
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–66) British Novelist, Essayist, Biographer
Woe to that nation whose literature is cut short by the intrusion of force. This is not merely interference with freedom of the press but the sealing up of a nation’s heart, the excision of its memory.
—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian Dissident Novelist
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 (1898–1980) American Jurist, Longest-serving Supreme Court Justice
I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Fear of corrupting the mind of the younger generation is the loftiest of cowardice.
—Holbrook Jackson (1874–1948) British Journalist, Writer, Editor
The danger of censorship in cultural media increases in proportion to the degree to which one approaches the winning of a mass audience.
—James T. Farrell (1904–79) American Novelist
Every burned book enlightens the world.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen.
—Tom Smothers (1937–2023) American Comedian, Musician, Actor
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.
—Henry Steele Commager (1902–98) American Historian, Academic
Censure is willingly indulged, because it always implies some superiority: men please themselves with imagining that they have made a deeper search, or wider survey than others, and detected faults and follies which escape vulgar observation.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
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 (1844–1924) French Novelist
You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure what you do not rightly understand.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Architect
Few persons have sufficient wisdom to prefer censure, which is useful, to praise which deceives them.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
The crime of book purging is that it involves a rejection of the word. For the word is never absolute truth, but only man’s frail and human effort to approach the truth. To reject the word is to reject the human search.
—Max Lerner (1902–92) American Journalist, Educator, Author
Art made tongue-tied by authority.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
I think you can leave the arts, superior or inferior, to the conscience of mankind.
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) Irish Poet, Dramatist
I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppress any of them. Censors only read a book with great difficulty, moving their lips as they puzzle out each syllable, when someone tells them that the book is unfit to read.
—Robertson Davies (1913–95) Canadian Novelist, Playwright, Essayist
He who would acquire fame must not show himself afraid of censure. The dread of censure is the death of genius.
—William Gilmore Simms (1806–70) American Poet, Historian, Novelist, Editor
Censorship is advertising paid by the government.
—Federico Fellini (1920–93) Italian Filmmaker
I am still against any kind of censorship. It’s a subject in my life that has been very important.
—Bernardo Bertolucci (1941–2018) Italian Film Director
I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
The trouble with censors is that they worry if a girl has cleavage. They ought to worry if she hasn’t any.
—Marilyn Monroe (1926–62) American Actor, Model, Singer
Art is never chaste. It ought to be forbidden to ignorant innocents, never allowed into contact with those not sufficiently prepared. Yes, art is dangerous. Where it is chaste, it is not art.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
As to the evil which results from a censorship, it is impossible to measure it, for it is impossible to tell where it ends.
—Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) British Philosopher, Economist
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.
—Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014) South African Novelist, Short-Story Writer
The censure of those who are opposed to us, is the highest commendation that can be given us.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
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 (1880–1964) Irish Dramatist, Memoirist
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