If you scan "best novels of all time" lists, you’re likely to run across Fahrenheit 451 more than once—with good reason. In this dystopian classic, first published in 1953, author Ray Bradbury drives home the importance of literature, ideas, curiosity, and the quest for knowledge—and brings to life, with searing force, what can happen in a society where books are suppressed.
Thought-provoking, impactful, and startlingly timely, Fahrenheit 451 is a must-listen for anyone who has not yet had the chance, and a worthwhile re-listen for just about everyone else. Actor Tim Robbins narrates the Audible Original production, delivering a nuanced, riveting, Earphones Award-winning performance.
To further encourage you to give this iconic novel a listen, and then take time to reflect on its meaning and messages, we've gathered 25 of the best quotes from Fahrenheit 451.
1. “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?”
2. "Books were 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, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.”
3. “There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house."
4. “A book is a loaded gun."
5. "So now you see why books are hated and feared? They show the pores of the face of life."
6. "The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are.”
7. “If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you'll never learn.”
8. “Don't ask for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were heading for shore.”
9. "He was not happy. He was not happy. He said the words to himself. He recognized this as the true state of affairs. He wore his happiness like a mask.”
10. "Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change. Don’t give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy.”
11. “We bombard people with sensation. That substitutes for thinking.”
12. “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."
13. “You're afraid of making mistakes. Don't be. Mistakes can be profited by.”
14. “Everyone must leave something behind when he dies... A child or a book or a painting... Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there.”
15. “Those who don't build must burn. It's as old as history and juvenile delinquents.”
16. “People don't talk about anything... No, not anything. They name a lot of cars or clothes or swimming pools mostly and say how swell! But they all say the same things and nobody says anything different from anyone else.”
17. “I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough, it’ll make sense.”
18. "To everything there is a season. Yes. A time to break down, and a time to build up. Yes. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. Yes, all that.”
19. “I don't want to change sides and just be told what to do. There's no reason to change if I do that."
20. "It didn't come from the Government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick... Today, thanks to them, you can stay happy all the time, you are allowed to read comics."
21. ‘Remember, the firemen are rarely necessary. The public itself stopped reading of its own accord.'”
‘22. "But you can’t make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up under them.'”
23. “I’ll hold onto the world tight some day. I’ve got one finger on it now; that’s a beginning.”
24. "We are all bits and pieces of history and literature and international law. Byron, Tom Paine, Machiavelli or Christ."
25. “Stuff your eyes with wonder... live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds."
