50+ Best Fahrenheit 451 Quotes: Exclusive Selection

Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury, first published in 1953. Often regarded as one of his best works, the novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and “firemen” burn any that are found. Profoundly inspirational Fahrenheit 451 quotes will encourage growth in life, make you wiser and broaden your perspective.

If you’re searching for most beautiful quotes from books that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of inspiring George Orwell 1984 quotes, best Animal Farm quotes and famous Handmaid’s Tale quotes.

Famous Fahrenheit 451 Quotes

I don’t talk things. I talk the meaning of things. I sit here and know I’m alive. Ray Bradbury

Why is it, he said, one time, at the subway entrance, I feel I’ve known you so many years? Because I like you, she said, and I don’t want anything from you. Ray Bradbury

They say you retain knowledge even when you’re sleeping, if someone whispers in your ear. Ray Bradbury

Stuff your eyes with wonder, he said, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ray Bradbury

Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so 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. Ray Bradbury

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? Ray Bradbury

Come on now, we’re going to go build a mirror factory first and put out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long look in them. Ray Bradbury

There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing. Ray Bradbury

But time to think? If you’re not driving a hundred miles an hour, at a clip where you can’t think of anything else but the danger, then you’re playing some game or sitting in some room where you can’t argue with the four wall televisor. Why? The televisor is real. It is immediate, it has dimension. It tells you what to think and blasts it in. It must be, right. It seems so right. It rushes you on so quickly to its own conclusions your mind hasn’t time to protest, What nonsense! Ray Bradbury

If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you’ll never learn. Ray Bradbury

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? Ray Bradbury

We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over. Ray Bradbury

Stuff your eyes with wonder live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic that any dream made or paid for in factories. Ray Bradbury

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. Ray Bradbury

We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at least one which makes the heart run over. Ray Bradbury

With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word intellectual, of course, became the swear word it deserved to be. Ray Bradbury

That’s the good part of dying; when you’ve nothing to lose, you run any risk you want. Ray Bradbury

I’m seventeen and I’m crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he said, always say seventeen and insane. Ray Bradbury

It took some man a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life, and then I came along in two minutes and boom! it’s all over. Ray Bradbury

The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us. Ray Bradbury

We stand against the small tide of those who want to make everyone unhappy with conflicting theory and thought. Ray Bradbury

The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies. Ray Bradbury

No one has time any more for anyone else. Ray Bradbury

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 around them. It can’t last. Ray Bradbury

If you don’t want a house built, hide the nails and wood. 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. Ray Bradbury

I still love books. Nothing a computer can do can compare to a book. You can’t really put a book on the Internet. Three companies have offered to put books by me on the Net, and I said, If you can make something that has a nice jacket, nice paper with that nice smell, then we’ll talk. All the computer can give you is a manuscript. People don’t want to read manuscripts. They want to read books. Books smell good. They look good. You can press it to your bosom. You can carry it in your pocket. Ray Bradbury

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. Ray Bradbury

And when he died, I suddenly realized I wasn’t crying for him at all, but for the things he did. I cried because he would never do them again, he would never carve another piece of wood or help us raise doves and pigeons in the backyard or play the violin the way he did, or tell us jokes the way he did. He was part of us and when he died, all the actions stopped dead and there was no one to do them the way he did. He was individual. He was an important man. I’ve never gotten over his death. Often I think what wonderful carvings never came to birth because he died. How many jokes are missing from the world, and how many homing pigeons untouched by his hands? He shaped the world. He did things to the world. The world was bankrupted of ten million fine actions the night he passed on. Ray Bradbury

A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Ray Bradbury

The books are to remind us what asses and fool we are. They’re Caeser’s praetorian guard, whispering as the parade roars down the avenue, Remember, Caeser, thou art mortal. Most of us can’t rush around, talking to everyone, know all the cities of the world, we haven’t time, money or that many friends. The things you’re looking for, Montag, are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety nine per cent of them is in a book. 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 headed for shore. Ray Bradbury

Bet I know something else you don’t. There’s dew on the grass in the morning. He suddenly couldn’t remember if he had known this or not, and it made him quite irritable.  And if you look she nodded at the sky there’s a man on the moon. He hadn’t looked for a long time. Ray Bradbury

It was a pleasure to burn. Ray Bradbury

Remember, the firemen are rarely necessary. The public itself stopped reading of its own accord. Ray Bradbury

A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Who knows who might be the target of the well read man? Ray Bradbury

And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of the books. Ray Bradbury

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. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top heavy, and tax mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. 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. Ray Bradbury

Is it true, the world works hard and we play? Is that why we’re hated so much? Ray Bradbury

I don’t talk things, sir. I talk the meaning of things. Ray Bradbury

When I was a boy my grandfather died. He was part of us and when he died, all the actions stopped dead and there was no one to do them just the way he did. He was individual. He was an important man. I’ve never gotten over his death. Often I think, what wonderful carvings never came to birth because he died. How many jokes are missing from the world, and how many homing pigeons untouched by his hands. He shaped the world. He did things to the world. The world was bankrupted of ten million fine actions the night he passed on. Ray Bradbury

Oh God, the terrible tyranny of the majority. We all have our harps to play. And it’s up to you to know with which ear you’ll listen. Ray Bradbury

We’re going to meet a lot of lonely people in the next week and the next month and the next year. And when they ask us what we’re doing, you can say, We’re remembering. That’s where we’ll win out in the long run. Ray Bradbury

It doesn’t matter what you do so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away. Ray Bradbury

We’ll pass the books on to our children, by word of mouth, and let our children wait, in turn, on the other people. A lot will be lost that way, of course. 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. It can’t last. Ray Bradbury

See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask for no guarantees, ask for no security. Ray Bradbury

Nobody listens any more. I can’t talk to the walls because they’re yelling at me. I can’t talk to my wife; she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough, it’ll make sense. And I want you to teach me to understand what I read. Ray Bradbury

I’ll hold on to the world tight some day. I’ve got one finger on it now; that’s a beginning. Ray Bradbury

I’m antisocial, they say. I don’t mix. It’s so strange. I’m very social indeed. It all depends on what you mean by social, doesn’t it? Ray Bradbury

That’s the good part of dying; when you’ve nothing to lose, you run any risk you want. Ray Bradbury