The Collector of Burned Books

Because words form the foundation of society. Ideas create culture. Control them, and you can control . . . everything.

If it were so simple, Goebbels wouldn’t have ordered me here , would he have? If books had no power, they never would have been banned.

Books didn’t burn. Books ignited. They lit the burning in others. Not with paper and match. With ideas.

These students had it all wrong—backward. Books didn’t burn. Books ignited. They lit the burning in others. Not with paper and match. With ideas.

Her best weapons were the books--and she was going to use them well.

There was no such thing, in a good world, as too many libraries.

Ideas cannot be burned. They cannot be destroyed just because a few copies of the book they’re printed in are.

Books didn't burn. Books ignited. They lit the burning in others. Not with paper and matches. With ideas.

Read novels, because they will put you in someone else’s skin. Read poetry, because it will give wings to your soul. Read science, because it will show you what’s possible. Read politics, because it will teach you how strongly people care about how their fellow men are treated, wherever they stand on what the best way is. . . . Read things you hate and things you love and things you never thought you’d understand. And never, never accept the excuse that you’re not strong enough to handle it if you read something that offends you. You are. You’re strong enough to be offended and then try to understand why. You’re strong enough to grant that someone can be different and still be worthy of dignity. And if you aren’t? . . . Then read more, until you are (pp. 315-316).

He would tell you to think, next time, before you blindly chase your ideology. He would ask you to think, not just to feel. To ask, always, if you could be wrong. To listen, always listen, to the other points of view. Because the moment we stop granting someone the right to disagree, Kraus, this is what happens. Do you understand me? This is what turns men into tyrants. This is what leads to fear and death (p. 265)

because it will give wings to your soul. Read science, because it will show you what’s possible. Read politics, because it will teach you how strongly people care about how their fellow men are treated, wherever they stand on what the best way is.

What we can all agree on is that words are powerful

Someday the world will be right again. It will be right

She didn’t want to fall in love with a Nazi—even one who hated the Nazis as much as she did.

Why can a woman not both pursue a vocation in the world and raise a family? Why are men

The people could be wrong. The people could get so caught up in their own ideology that they forgot that the love of wisdom wasn’t about being right.

There was no such thing

If books had no power

They meant the fire to blaze

spoiling what came next in a book was surely an unpardonable sin.

That the only way to defeat a bully was to win him over. The only way to truly defend what you believe is to make your enemy believe it too. Make him your friend.

Refuse to read anything that might be distasteful, and one soon lacked the ability to understand it.

When society deliberately cultivated ignorance, they paid the price.

...that was the funny thing about books - the more you tried to ban them, the more brightly they burned in the hearts and minds that found them anyway.

Censorship,...is as old as time. But...the best cure to any "cancel culture" isn't to argue. It's to read. Read broadly. Read things you don't agree with. Read things you love and read things you hate. Read fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Read politics and science and religion. Read not to pick apart but to put together. Read, always read to ask, "What if it's true?" Read, and grow, and discover. And if you're not strong enough to take it - then read some more until you are. Read until you understand that other perspective...and until you can love those who hold it. Because you never win by fighting your enemies - only by making them your friends.

Civilization wasn’t just built on raw physical power. It was built on strength of character that made people overcome the worst of circumstances.

I love you, even when I can’t. I love you, as long as I am.