Guy Montag is the main character from the classic novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
He’s an intelligent, passionate man living in a dystopian world where books are forbidden and technology is used to control the population.
Montag’s journey of self-discovery leads him to challenge the oppressive government, making him an iconic figure of rebellion and courage.
This blog post explores the most inspirational Guy Montag quotes from Fahrenheit 451, providing insight into Montag’s thoughts and actions.
80 Fahrenheit 451 Quotes With Page Numbers
Guy Montag Quotes With Page Numbers
These quotes show Montag’s character development. In Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag symbolizes change and hope. He begins the story as a fireman responsible for burning books and the homes that contain them.
As he grows more aware of the world around him, he begins to question the motives behind his work and the purpose of books in society. He eventually turns against his former profession, becoming an outlaw and joining a group dedicated to preserving books and knowledge.
In doing so, Montag catalyzes change in a society that the government has carefully crafted to control its citizens. His journey is a testament to the power of literature and how it can be used as a tool for social transformation.
Guy Montag Quotes Part 1: The Hearth and the Salamander
“It was a pleasure to burn.”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, about: fire, books, (Character: Montag as the narrator), Page 1
“Kerosene,” he said, because the silence had lengthened, “is nothing but perfume to me.”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, about: fire, (Character: Guy Montag), Page 4
“One time, as a child in a power failure, his mother had found and lit a last candle and there had been a brief hour of rediscovery, of such illumination that space lost its vast dimensions and drew comfortably around them, and they, mother and son, alone, transformed, hoping that the power might not come on again too soon…”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, about: knowledge (Character: Montag as the narrator), Page 5
“Monday burn Millay, Wednesday Whitman, Friday Faulkner, burn ’em to ashes, then burn the ashes. That’s our official slogan.”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, about: fire, censorship, ignorance (Character: Guy Montag), Page 6
20 Fahrenheit 451 Quotes About Censorship With Page Numbers
“They walked still farther and the girl said, “Is it true that long ago firemen put fires out instead of going to start them?”
No. Houses have always been fireproof, take my word for it.”
Strange. I heard once that a long time ago houses used to burn by accident and they needed firemen to stop the flames.”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, about: fire, ignorance (Characters: Clarisse McClellan and Guy Montag), Page 6
17 Clarisse McClellan Quotes With Page Numbers
“He glanced back at the wall. How like a mirror, too, her face. Impossible; for how many people did you know who reflected your own light to you? People were more often–he searched for a simile, found one in his work–torches, blazing away until they whiffed out. How rarely did other people’s faces take of you and throw back to you your own expression, your own innermost trembling thought?”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, (Character: Guy Montag as the narrator), Page 8
“He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, (Character: Guy Montag as the narrator), Page 9
“There are too many of us, he thought. There are billions of us and that’s too many. Nobody knows anyone. Strangers come and violate you. Strangers come and cut your heart out. Strangers come and take your blood. Good God, who were those men? I never saw them before in my life!”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, about society, ignorance (Character: Montag as the narrator), Page 14
“He said hello and then said, “What are you up to now?”
“I’m still crazy. The rain feels good. I love to walk in it.
“I don’t think I’d like that,” he said.
“You might if you tried.”
“I never have.”
She licked her lips. “Rain even tastes good.”
“What do you do, go around trying everything once?” he asked.
“Sometimes twice.”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, (Characters: Clarisse McClellan and Guy Montag), Page 19
“It was like a great bee come home from some field where the honey is full of poison wildness, of insanity and nightmare, its body crammed with that over-rich nectar and now it was sleeping the evil out of itself.”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, about technology (Character: Montag as the narrator), Page 22
“It [The Mechanical Hound] doesn’t think anything we don’t want it to think.’
‘That’s sad,’ said Montag, quietly, ‘because all we put into it is hunting and finding and killing. What a shame if that’s all it can ever know.”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, about technology, ignorance (Characters: Captain Beatty and Guy Montag), Page 25
“They crashed the front door and grabbed at a woman, though she was not running, she was not trying to escape. She was only standing, weaving from side to side, her eyes fixed upon a nothingness in the wall as if they had struck her a terrible blow upon the head. Her tongue was moving in her mouth, and her eyes seemed to be trying to remember something, and then they remembered and her tongue moved again: “Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, (Character: Montag as the narrator), Page 33
“How inconvenient! Always before it had been like snuffing a candle. The police went first and adhesive-taped the victim’s mouth and bandaged him off into their glittering beetle cars, so when you arrived you found an empty house. You weren’t hurting anyone, you were hurting only things! And since things really couldn’t be hurt, since things felt nothing, and things don’t scream or whimper, as this woman might begin to scream and cry out, there was nothing to tease your conscience later. You were simply cleaning up. Janitorial work, essentially. Everything to its proper place. Quick with the kerosene! Who’s got a match!”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, about censorship, ignorance, fire (Character: Montag as the narrator), Page 35
“And me not sleeping tonight or tomorrow night or any night for a long while, now that this has started. And he thought of her lying on the bed with the two technicians standing straight over her, not bent with concern, but only standing straight, arms folded. And he remembered thinking then that if she died, he was certain he wouldn’t cry. For it would be the dying of an unknown, a street face, a newspaper image, and it was suddenly so very wrong that he had begun to cry, not at death but at the thought of not crying at death, a silly empty man near a silly empty woman, while the hungry snake made her still more empty.
How do you get so empty? he wondered. Who takes it out of you? And that awful flower the other day, the dandelion! It had summed up everything, hadn’t it? ‘What a shame! You’re not in love with anyone!’ And why not?”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, about society, ignorance (Character: Montag, as the narrator), Page 41
“And the uncles, the aunts, the cousins, the nieces, the nephews, that lived in those walls, the gibbering pack of tree apes that said nothing, nothing, nothing and said it loud, loud, loud.”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, about technology, society, ignorance (Character: Montag as the narrator), Page 41
“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, Fahrenheit 451, about books, knowledge (Character: Guy Montag), Page 48
“Last night I thought about all the kerosene I’ve used in the past ten years. And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of the books. A man had to think them up. A man had to take a long time to put them down on paper. And I’d never even thought that thought before…
It took some man a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life, and then I come along in two minutes and boom! it’s all over.”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, about books, fire, knowledge, censorship (Character: Guy Montag), Page 49
“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, Fahrenheit 451, about society, ignorance (Character: Guy Montag), Page 49
“No front porches. My uncle says there used to be front porches. And people sat there sometimes at night, talking when they wanted to talk, rocking, and not talking when they didn’t want to talk. Sometimes they just sat there and thought about things, turned things over. My uncle says the architects got rid of the front porches because they didn’t look well. But my uncle says that was merely rationalizing it; the real reason, hidden underneath, might be they didn’t want people sitting like that, doing nothing, rocking, talking; that was the wrong KIND of social life. People talked too much. And they had time to think. So they ran off with the porches.”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, about censorship, society (Character: Montag as the narrator), Page 60
Faber Quotes With Page numbers
Guy Montag Quotes Part 2: The Sieve and the Sand
“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, Fahrenheit 451, about love (Character: Montag reading a passage), Page 67
“How in hell did those bombers get up there every single second of our lives! Why doesn’t someone want to talk about it! We’ve started and won two atomic wars since 2022! Is it because we’re having so much fun at home we’ve forgotten the world? Is it because we’re so rich and the rest of the world’s so poor and we just don’t care if they are? I’ve heard rumors; the world is starving, but we’re well fed. Is it true, the world works hard and we play? Is that why we’re hated so much? I’ve heard the rumors about hate too, once in a long while, over the years. Do you know why? I don’t, that’s sure! Maybe the books can get us half out of the cave. They just might stop us from making the same damn insane mistakes!”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, about books, knowledge, ignorance, society (Character: Montag), Page 70
“If you read fast and read all, maybe some of the sand will stay in the sieve.”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, about books, knowledge (Character: Montag as the narrator), Page 74
“Nobody listens anymore. 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, Fahrenheit 451, about society, technology (Character: Montag), Page 78
“That’s the good part of dying; when you’ve nothing to lose, you run any risk you want.”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, (Character: Montag), Page 81
“I don’t want to change sides and just be told what to do. There’s no reason to change if I do that.”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, (Character: Montag), Page 88
“How’re your children, Mrs. Phelps?’ he asked.
‘You know I haven’t any! No one in his right mind, the good Lord knows, would have children!’ said Mrs. Phelps, not quite sure why she was angry with this man.
‘I wouldn’t say that,’ said Mrs. Bowles. ‘I’ve had TWO children by Caesarian section. No use going through all that agony for a baby. The world must reproduce, you know, the race must go on. Besides, they sometimes look just like you, and that’s nice. Two Caesarians turned the trick, yes, sir. Oh, my doctor said, Caesarians aren’t necessary; you’ve got the hips for it, everything’s normal, but I INSISTED.’
‘Caesarians or not, children are ruinous; you’re out of your mind,’ said Mrs. Phelps.
‘I plunk the children in school nine days out of ten. I put up with them when they come home three days a month; it’s not bad at all. You heave them into the ‘parlor’ and turn the switch. It’s like washing clothes: stuff laundry in and slam the lid.’ Mrs. Bowles tittered. ‘They’d just as soon kick as kiss me. Thank God, I can kick back!”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, about technology, society, ignorance (Characters: Montag, Mrs. Phelps, and Mrs. Bowles), Pages 92, 93
20 Mildred Montag Quotes With Page Numbers
Quotes From Guy Montag Part 3: Burning Bright
“This is happening to me,” said Montag.
“What a dreadful surprise,” said Beatty. “For everyone nowadays knows, absolutely is certain, that nothing will ever happen to me. Others die, I go on. There are no consequences and no responsibilities. Except that there are. But let’s not talk about them, eh? By the time the consequences catch up with you, it’s too late, isn’t it, Montag?”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, about society (Characters: Montag and Captain Beatty), Pages 109, 110
“The river was mild and leisurely, going away from the people who ate shadows for breakfast and steam for lunch and vapors for supper.”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, about society (Character: Montag as the narrator), Page 133
“The sun burned every day. It burned Time. The world rushed in a circle and turned on its axis and time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burned things with the firemen and the sun burned Time, that meant that everything burned!”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, about fire (Character: Montag as the narrator), Page 134
“Montag, falling flat, going down, saw or felt, or imagined he saw or felt the walls go dark in Millie’s face, heard her screaming, because in the millionth part of time left, she saw her own face reflected there, in a mirror instead of a crystal ball, and it was such a wildly empty face, all by itself in the room, touching nothing, starved and eating of itself, that at last she recognized it was her own…”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, (Character: Montag, as the narrator), Page 152
“I’ll hold on to the world tight some day. I’ve got one finger on it now; that’s a beginning.”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, (Character: Montag as the narrator), Page 155
“To everything there is a season. Yes. A time to break down, and a time to build up. Yes. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. Yes.”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, (Character: Montag, as the narrator), Page 158
Guy Montag character description
Guy Montag is a fireman in the futuristic city of Bradbury, an occupation drastically changing from its original purpose. Rather than putting out fires, firemen are responsible for ensuring books are burned, and citizens don’t possess them.
Montag is initially portrayed as a mindless follower of the regime’s rules, but as the novel progresses, he questions his role in society and appreciates literature.
He soon develops a rebellious streak, leading him to go against the government’s orders. Montag is a complex character with significant personal growth and development throughout the novel.
His evolution from a dutiful fireman to a revolutionary hero is one of the most notable aspects of Ray Bradbury’s classic work.
Furthermore, his journey from ignorance to understanding is an inspiring example of how knowledge and awareness can lead to positive change.
Guy Montag Physical Description
Guy Montag has black hair, a fiery face, and a blue-steel shaved but unshaven look.
“Montag started up, his mouth opened. Had he ever seen a fireman that didn’t have black hair, black brows, a fiery face, and a blue-steel shaved but unshaved look? These men were all mirrorimages of himself! Were all firemen picked then for their looks as well as their proclivities?”
~Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, (Guy Montag as the narrator), Page 30
Granger Quotes And Page Numbers
What does Montag quote at the end of Fahrenheit 451?
“To everything there is a season. Yes. A time to break down, and a time to build up. Yes. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. Yes.”