My favorite quote from fahrenhiet 451, would certainly have to be "Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores." That is my favorite quote because i feel that Faber makes a valid point. He could be right about his opinion on books. I like how Faber changes his mind at the end. At first he thought books were bad. Now in the end he has a different opinion.

One of the quotes from the bookis on page 141. I liked the best was The sun burnt every day. "It burnt Time . . . Time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!" I liked that quote because he realized that there are bigger things than him. He knew he had to do what was right. Instead of burning books he had to stop. I like how in this quote there is a comparison between the fireman and the sun. In this novel the sun is being used a whole lot as feeling.

I like the quote "When you've got nothing to lose, you run any risk you want." I like this quote that Montag says to Faber because if you take a moment to stop and think about it, it's so true. If you have nothing to lose in a situation why not take the risk. You would be stupid not to. You never know how it will turn out, it could happen to turn out in your favor but you'll never know unless you try. I think this quote also shows how Montag has changed from a normal just ordinary guy to someone who wants to explore the world and see what it's really all about.

I really like this thread because it shows us one of the reasons why Ray is such a great author and why this book is so wonderful. Every quote that has been mentioned here is great. They are thought-provoking, relevant to today's society, beautifully written, and sometimes heart-rending. Reading Ray to me is always an emotional experience. I laugh more, cry more, and think more than with any other author. I'm sorry I can not give my favorite quote. I could not begin to narrow it down to one, but I sure am enjoying reading all of your favorites.

[This message has been edited by lmskipper (edited 09-02-2004).]

My favorite quote from 451 would have to be from Beatty. He stated, "If you don't want a house built, hide the nails and wood." I firmly believe that this quote sums up the entire book. If you had to summarize the book in one sentence, I would choose that one. It makes complete sense as to why they burn the books. They don't want people coming up with ideas, so they take away the source of them, books. But the real question is why don't they want people coming up with their own ideas. We had a discussion in my English class about this subject. If people come up with their own ideas, some of them are bound to come up with ideas opposing the government. Thus, the government takes away the source of the ideas to secure its position. Another reason behind this is because they don�t want people to worry. When people are worried they don't work as efficiently and function normally, thus the government tries to help society by eliminating worries. So as you can see, this quote is very important to the book. I believe that this is my favorite quote, and that I will remember it more than anything else in the book.

[This message has been edited by matt250pa (edited 09-02-2004).]

I think my favorite quote from the story would have to be the one said by Montag. In this quote he says, "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 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." I feel like this is where Montag wanted to make a change and had the faith and courage to do so. I guess he feels like there just isn't anyone there for him anymore and that there is more to books. And now he is going to a man, Faber, in which he would not have thought he would ever be returning to. This also shows the strength of one man when he is on the journey for knowledge. Montag also knew that from that point on it was going to be much different. He was aware that this was pretty much the point of no return.

My favorite quote in Fahrenheit 451 was the one said by Clarisse on page ten. Clarisse said, �Are you happy?� I believe this quote has much dept behind it when looked at more closely. The quote is a catalyst for Montag, can be viewed as a detailed illustration, and can be looked at as a rhetorical question.
First of all, it is very important to the book. If one took it out, the ending would be totally different. Clarisse was the catalyst for Montag and for his journey. If she would have never said this line, Montag would have never started questioning his job and his life. She was the one who started his indecisiveness about his life.
I like to describe this quote with a picture of two doors. The door on the left is the door one is supposed to go through. The path leading to it is the path one is supposed to follow. (It�s the golden path.) The door on the right is the forbidden door, where the forbidden books are. Even though it is forbidden, the door is slightly open.
In this illustration, Montag is on the golden path. Clarisse asked the question, �Are you happy?� Montag�s first response was yes, so he stayed on the path. But further on, he started to question himself. Was he really happy? He finally decided that no, he was not. Soon he started to question the world. Was he on the right path? Could there be a better answer? A better way? A better door? The door I am talking about is the forbidden door. Clarisse�s simple question eventually leads to many more questions for Montag. It eventually opened another aspect and �door of life� for Montag. In the end, Montag took the forbidden door by reading the forbidden books. If he would have never met Clarisse, he may have still been on the right or golden path. One question made the difference.
People in this day and age can interpret this quote as a rhetorical question. (One may not need to answer it directly, but one should just think about it.) Are you happy? Why do we do the things we do? Are we living up to our expectations or someone else�s? Can we do something to change our choices or paths in life? I think that too many people do what others expect them to do, as in Fahrenheit 451. People have to realize that they have the choice of the rest of their life. So whether you choose the right door or the left door, the choice is yours.
Thx.
Ali E.

My favorite quote in this book is the one where Clarrise is explaining how you rub the dandelion under your chin and if it rubs off you, it means you are in love. This all happens one night when she meets up with Mongtag as hes walking home from work. She is this mysterious girl who hes never met before and just randomly approaches him that night. They would just have conversations about anything and she would ask numberous amounts of questions that he thought were pretty strange. As she is rubbing it off of her, Mongtag asks what she is doing. She replys and shows him by rubbing it off of him. Nothing happens and she teases him on how he isn't in love since the dandelion didn't rub off. He just simply says that it was already used on her so therefor it couldn't even work for him. I thought this was a cute part of the book when they discussed about love and such.