“Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it.”

— Mark Twain

Often attributed to Twain online, but unsourced. Alternate source: "The whole principle [of censorship] is wrong. It's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can't have steak." — Robert Heinlein, The Man Who Sold the Moon, 1951, p. 188.
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Mark Twain 637

American author and humorist 1835–1910

Related quotes

“The whole principle is wrong; it's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can't eat steak.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

On censorship, in The Man Who Sold the Moon (1950), p. 188; this may be the origin of a remark which in recent years has sometimes become misattributed to Mark Twain: Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it.
Context: How anybody expects a man to stay in business with every two-bit wowser in the country claiming a veto over what we can say and can't say and what we can show and what we can't show — it's enough to make you throw up. The whole principle is wrong; it's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can't eat steak.

“Any man who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad.”

Leo Rosten (1908–1997) American writer

Although a very common misconception is to attribute the final part of this quote to W.C. Fields himself, it was actually first said about him by Rosten during a "roast" of Fields at the Masquer's Club in Hollywood in 1939, as Rosten explains in his book, The Power of Positive Nonsense (1977).
Context: The only thing I can say about W. C. Fields … is this: Any man who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad.

“Government want to tell you things you can't say because they're against the law, or you can't say this because it's against a regulation, or here's something you can't say because its a… secret; "You can't tell him that because he's not cleared to know that." Government wants to control information and control language because that's the way you control thought, and basically that's the game they're in.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Doin' It Again, Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics (1990)

“Never tell the box-office man that you can't hear well or he will sell you a seat where you can't see either.”

Kin Hubbard (1868–1930) cartoonist

Short Furrows http://books.google.com/books?id=DCQOAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Never+tell+the+box-office+man+that+you+can't+hear+well+or+he+will+sell+you+a+seat+where+you+can't+see+either%22&pg=PA10#v=onepage (1911).