“Fahrenheit 451” is a dystopian novel written by Ray Bradbury in 1953. The story presents a future American society where books are outlawed and “firemen” burn any house that contains them. The novel’s protagonist, Guy Montag, is one of these firemen who ultimately rebels against society’s norms. The novel is acclaimed for its chilling exploration of censorship and authoritarianism, and the utter destruction they can lead to when taken to extremes. Here are some of the most popular quotes from “Fahrenheit 451”:
Quotes
- “I don’t mind what I do, so long as it’s not boring. It can be hell, heaven, or anything in between, but this book better grab me on the first line or I’m not reading it.”
- “It was a pleasure to burn.”
- “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
- “We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?”
- “Books are only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say.”
- “A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Break man’s mind.”
- “Don’t ask for guarantees. And don’t look to be saved by any one thing, person, machine, or library.”
- “I am nothing. I’m like someone who’s been thrown into the ocean at night, floating all alone. I reach out, but no one is there. I call out, but no one answers. I have no connection to anything.”
- “There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
- “There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house.”
- “The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are.”
- “We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.”
- “Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information.”
- “If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none.”
- “The television is ‘real’. It is immediate, it has dimension. It tells you what to think and blasts it in. It must be right. It seems so right. It rushes you on so quickly to its own conclusions your mind hasn’t time to protest, ‘What nonsense!’.”
- “Why is it, he wondered, that they can remember tomorrow but completely forget yesterday?”
- “What a man thinks is his own business. What matters is what he does.”
- “There’s no reason to change what you are, but if you’re not happy, you should start making changes.”
- “Words are like leaves; they are never-ending.”
- “There is no future for a people who deny their past. My forebears, my grandparents, they did not dream of a day when everything would be so good for them, and yet have it so worst for their grandchildren.”
These quotes from “Fahrenheit 451” provide insight into Bradbury’s views on society, knowledge, and the human condition. Through these poignant and powerful lines, the novel invites its readers to reflect upon the dangers of censorship and the power of books.