“Intolerance is inclined to censor, and censorship promotes ignorance of the arguments of others and thus intolerance itself: a rigid, vicious circle that is hard to break.”
The Drowned and the Saved (1986)
Context: In countries and epochs in which communication is impeded, soon all other liberties wither; discussion dies by inanition, ignorance of the opinion of others becomes rampant, imposed opinions triumph. The well-known example of this is the crazy genetics preached in the USSR by Lysenko, which in the absence of discussion (his opponents were exiled to Siberia) compromised the harvests for twenty years. Intolerance is inclined to censor, and censorship promotes ignorance of the arguments of others and thus intolerance itself: a rigid, vicious circle that is hard to break.
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Primo Levi44
Italian chemist, memoirist, short story writer, novelist, e… 1918–1987Related quotes
“Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance.”
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Georges Bataille (1897–1962) French intellectual and literary figure
Source: L’Expérience Intérieure (1943), p. 12
William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) British Liberal politician and prime minister of the United Kingdom
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“Through a vicious circle of pure reason skepsis itself becomes dogma.”
Johann Georg Hamann (1730–1788) German philosopher
Briefwechsel, ed. Arthur Henkel (1955-1975), vol. V, p. 432.
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Alfred de Zayas (1947) American United Nations official
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