
“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
Misattributed
Hagakure (c. 1716)
“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
Misattributed
“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
Actually a statement by Joseph Brodsky, as quoted in The Balancing Act : Mastering the Competing Demands of Leadership (1996) by Kerry Patterson, p. 437.
However, compare to the similar Bradbury quotes from 1993 (Seattle Times) and 2000 (Peoria Journal) above.
Misattributed
“You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
As quoted in "Bradbury Still Believes in Heat of ‘Fahrenheit 451’" http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19930312&slug=1689996, interview by Misha Berson, in ', credited to "Ray Bradbury, quoted by Misha Berson in Seattle Times", in "Quotable Quotes", The Reader's Digest, Vol. 144, No. 861, January 1994, p. 25 http://books.google.com/books?output=html&id=ZqqUAAAAIAAJ&q=%22people+to+stop+reading%22#search_anchor), or an indirect reference to the re-quoting in Reader's Digest (such as: The Times Book of Quotations (Philip Howard, ed.), 2000, Times Books and HarperCollins, p. 93
Variant: We're not teaching kids to read and write and think. … There's no reason to burn books if you don't read them.
As quoted in "At 80, Ray Bradbury Still Fighting the Future He Foresaw" http://www.raybradbury.com/articles_peoria.html, interview by Roger Moore, in The Peoria Journal Star (August 2000)
Context: The problem in our country isn't with books being banned, but with people no longer reading. Look at the magazines, the newspapers around us – it's all junk, all trash, tidbits of news. The average TV ad has 120 images a minute. Everything just falls off your mind. … You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
“Where they burn books, at the end they also burn people”
Almansor: A Tragedy (1823), as translated in True Religion (2003) by Graham Ward, p. 142
Variant translations:
Wherever books are burned, men in the end will also burn.
Where they burn books, at the end they also burn people.
Where they burn books, they will also burn people.
It is there, where they burn books, that eventually they burn people.
Where they burn books, so too will they in the end burn human beings.
Where they burn books, they also burn people.
Them that begin by burning books, end by burning men.
Variant: Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.
“There is no future for e-books, because they are not books. E-books smell like burned fuel.”
BookExpo America, Los Angeles (May 2008). Reported in USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2008-06-01-1819108364_x.htm (June 1, 2008) and The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/jun/03/news.amazon (3 June 2008)
Quoted in column "O Bleiburgu i Titu očito može i bez fusnota: pa nećemo se valjda zamarati tamo nekim izvorima" https://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/misljenja/agora/clanak/id/597177/o-bleiburgu-i-titu-ocito-moze-i-bez-fusnota-pa-necemo-se-valjda-zamarati-tamo-nekim-izvorima in Slobodna Dalmacija, 4th April 2019.
“Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.”
Dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen.
Almansor: A Tragedy (1823), as translated in True Religion (2003) by Graham Ward, p. 142
Variant translations:
Wherever books are burned, men in the end will also burn.
Where they burn books, at the end they also burn people.
Where they burn books, they will also burn people.
It is there, where they burn books, that eventually they burn people.
Where they burn books, so too will they in the end burn human beings.
Where they burn books, they also burn people.
Them that begin by burning books, end by burning men.
“I am Envy… I cannot read and therefore wish all books burned.”
“It seemed to me that I had no right to burn a book I hadn't even read.”
The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934), A Cold Day