“The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose”

— Henry Steele Commager

Source: Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent (1954), p. 82, p. 88
Context: 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,… In the long run it will create a generation incapable of appreciating the difference between independence of thought and subservience.

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Henry Steele Commager 27

American historian 1902–1998

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