Books won’t stay banned. They won’t burn. Ideas won’t go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education.
¶ “A Little Learning,” address to students, Phillips Academy, Andover (Spring 1952)
Reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly (Nov 1952)
