This quotation is written above the stage in the auditorium at DuSable High School where I work on the South Side of Chicago. There is some discussion about the origin of the quote but nobody seems to be sure. It might be from Wendell Phillips? I am a librarian but have not been able to find out what its origin is. The school was built in 1935 and opened in 1936 to replace the Wendell Phillips High School which burned down.
I am looking for the sources for two highly quoted but (as far as I can tell) never cited quotations. I prefer to have the original source - that could be journal article, newspaper article, interview, authored work, etc. but I can accept a reference to a reputable quotations dictionary or other reference work. I need page number in addition to the title, publisher, etc.
The first quote is:
You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
~Ray Bradbury
The second quote is:
If large numbers of people believe in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech even if the law forbids it. But if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them.
The commercial database (at large academic libraries) LION takes this quote back to 1822, in C. S. (Charles S.) Talbot () Paddy's Trip to America; or, The Husband with Three Wives.
Oxford English Dictionary (advanced search for the phrase in full text), says: "1842 J. WILSON Chr. North I. 84 By the time we reach the manse we are as dry as a whistle".
