Home / Quotes / Quote by John Milton

Quote by John Milton

“...know, that so far to distrust' the judgement and the honesty of one who hath but a common repute in Learning and never yet offended, as not to count him fit to print his mind without a tutor and examiner lest he should drop a schism or something of corruption, is the greatest displeasure and indignity to a free and knowing spirit that can be put upon him.”

Book:Areopagitica

Work

Areopagitica

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

John Milton

John Milton, born on December 9, 1608, in London, and died on November 8, 1674, was a renowned English poet and scholar. He is best known for his epic poem 'Paradise Lost,' which has had a profound impact on world literature. more

“And what doe they tell us vainly of new opinions, when this very opinion of theirs, that none must be heard but whom they like, is the worst and newest opinion of all others, and is the chief cause why sects and schisms doe so much abound and true knowledge is kept at distance from us ; besides yet a greater danger which is in it.”

Censorship Free Speech Free Expression Censorship Of Books Areopagitica

Book:Areopagitica

Source: Areopagitica

“Blasphemy is just the fanatic's name for criticism. Charb writes wisely: 'A believer can blaspheme only to the extent that the idea of blasphemy holds any meaning to him. A non-believer, no matter how hard he tries, 'cannot' blaspheme. God is sacred only to those who believe in him. If you wish to insult or offend God, you have to be sure that he exists. The strategy used by minority group activists masquerading as anti-racists is to pass off blasphemy as Islamophobia and Islamophobia as racism.' The crucial distinction we must defend is between acts of imagination and acts of violence....Faith is not the enemy. Fanaticism is the enemy. It always is. But only a fool would deny that faith has been the seedbed of fanaticism in mankind's long and sorry struggle for the light. As much as at times we need to seek "solidarity" among unlike groups, we also need to "desolidarize," to "unsolidarize"—to put the people we know before the abstract categories we imagine. Come to think of it, making people, with all their flaws, fully visible while leaving generalized types alone is exactly what the caricaturist has always done for us. It's his special form of bravery.”

Free Speech Blasphemy Free Expression Cartoons Charlie Hebdo Caricature Open Society

Book:Open Letter: On Blasphemy, Islamophobia, and the True Enemies of Free Expression

Source: Open Letter: On Blasphemy, Islamophobia, and the True Enemies of Free Expression

“If You Feel Happiness, Sorrow and Pain While Writing Your Characters, It Means You are a True Author.”

Inspirational Motivational Author

Author:Unknown Author

“Public opinion! I don't know how sociologists define it, but it seems obvious to me that it can only consist of interacting individual opinions, freely expressed and independent of government or party opinion. So long as there is no independent public opinion in our country, there is no guarantee that the extermination of millions and millions for no good reason will not happen again, that it will not begin any night—perhaps this very night.”