Quotes from book
Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury, first published in 1953. Often regarded as one of his best works, the novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and "firemen" burn any that are found. The book's tagline explains the title: "Fahrenheit 451 – the temperature at which book paper catches fire, and burns..." The lead character, Guy Montag, is a fireman who becomes disillusioned with his role of censoring literature and destroying knowledge, eventually quitting his job and committing himself to the preservation of literary and cultural writings.


Ray Bradbury photo
Ray Bradbury photo

“There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.”

Fahrenheit 451 (1953), Coda (1979)
Context: There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist/Unitarian, Irish/Italian/Octogenarian/Zen Buddhist, Zionist/Seventh-day Adventist, Women's Lib/Republican, Mattachine/FourSquareGospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme.

Ray Bradbury photo

“Thinking little at all about nothing in particular.”

Source: Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury photo
Ray Bradbury photo
Ray Bradbury photo

“The sun burnt every day. It burnt time.”

Source: Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury photo
Ray Bradbury photo
Ray Bradbury photo
Ray Bradbury photo
Ray Bradbury photo
Ray Bradbury photo
Ray Bradbury photo
Ray Bradbury photo
Ray Bradbury photo
Ray Bradbury photo
Ray Bradbury photo

“There was always a minority afraid of something, and a great majority afraid of the dark, afraid of the future, afraid of the past, afraid of the present, afraid of themselves and shadows of themselves”

Usher II (1950)
The Martian Chronicles (1950)
Source: Fahrenheit 451
Context: They began by controlling books of cartoons and then detective books and, of course, films, one way or another, one group or another, political bias, religious prejudice, union pressures; there was always a minority afraid of something, and a great majority afraid of the dark, afraid of the future, afraid of the past, afraid of the present, afraid of themselves and shadows of themselves.

Ray Bradbury photo
Ray Bradbury photo

“I don't talk things, sir. I talk the meaning of things.”

Source: Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury photo