Dwight D. Eisenhower? William Safire? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: Historically, the censorship impulse has been enormously powerful and nearly universal. Interestingly, the nature of the repressed material has been highly variable. It has included sexual, ideological, religious, cultural, and military topics.
The opposition to censorship has also been forcefully expressed. Apparently, a U.S. President once said:
Don’t join the book burners … Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book.
Do you know who said this? Would you please help me to find a citation?
Reply from Quote Investigator: U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower delivered the commencement address at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire on June 14th, 1953. A transcript appeared in “The New York Times” the following day. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Don’t join the book burners. Don’t think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book as long as any document does not offend our own ideas of decency. That should be the only censorship.
How will we defeat communism unless we know what it is? What it teaches—why does it have such an appeal for men? Why are so many people swearing allegiance to it? It’s almost a religion, albeit one of the nether regions.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Don’t Join the Book Burners. Don’t Think You Are Going To Conceal Faults by Concealing Evidence That They Ever Existed”