Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read
Banned Books Week is observed during the last week of September each year. Upcoming dates are
September 27–October 4, 2008 and September 26–October 3, 2009 .
"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his
enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a
precedent that will reach to himself." -- Dissertations on
First Principles of Government, Thomas Paine
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one
person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more
justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power,
would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal
possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the
enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some
difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or
on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an
opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as
the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still
more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are
deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong,
they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception
and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with
error." -- On Liberty, John Stuart Mill
