You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

Ray Bradbury (via concretemountains)

(Source: concretemountains)

There’s a loneliness that only exists in one’s mind. The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby (via classof1969)

(Source: han-solo-dolo)

Books are doors that lead you into the street. With them you learn, educate yourself, travel, dream, imagine, live other lives and multiply yours by one thousand.

Arturo Perez-Reverte, La Reina del Sur (via quote-book)

(Source: quote-book)

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.

George R.R. Martin  (via weedbrain)

(Source: losing-allofme)

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us.

Neil Postman (via sometimesevilprevails) —

To be a writer you should read, write and talk to people, hear their knowledge, hear their problems. Be a good listener. The rest will come.

Jean Craighead George (via thelifeguardlibrarian)

(Source: jeancraigheadgeorge.com)