Fahrenheit 451 Rules and Order Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Part.Paragraph)

Quote #7

"Sounds fine," said Mrs. Bowles. "I voted last election, same as everyone, and I laid it on the line for President Noble. I think he's one of the nicest-looking men who ever became president."

"Oh, but the man they ran against him!"

"He wasn't much, was he? Kind of small and homely and he didn't shave too close or comb his hair very well."

"What possessed the ‘Outs’ to run him? You just don't go running a little short man like that against a tall man. Besides, he mumbled. Half the time I couldn't hear a word he said. And the words I did hear I didn't understand!"

"Fat, too, and didn't dress to hide it. No wonder the landslide was for Winston Noble. Even their names helped. Compare Winston Noble to Hubert Hoag for ten seconds and you can almost figure the results." (2.284-8)

It’s clear that this election was fixed. What’s scary is that it was fixed not with guns or cheating, but by intellectual manipulation – which is more powerful and more frightening.

Quote #8

"It was pretty silly, quoting poetry around free and easy like that. It was the act of a silly damn snob. Give a man a few lines of verse and he thinks he's the Lord of all Creation. You think you can walk on water with your books. Well, the world can get by just fine without them. Look where they got you, in slime up to your lip. If I stir the slime with my little finger, you'll drown!" (3.38)

It’s odd that Beatty makes so many religious references (like walking on water), given that the Bible is a banned book…

Quote #9

Somewhere the saving and putting away had to begin again and someone had to do the saving and keeping, one way or another, in books, in records, in people's heads, any way at all so long as it was safe, free from moths, silverfish, rust and dry-rot, and men with matches. The world was full of burning of all types and sizes. Now the guild of the asbestos weaver must open shop very soon. (3.243)

Montag has escaped the rigidity of the government’s rules, but he has discovered another system of order – that of nature.