obscenity, n.All

Obscenity is not a quality inherent in a book or picture, but is solely and exclusively a contribution of the reading mind, and hence cannot be defined in terms of the qualities of a book or picture.

Obscenity is our name for the uneasiness which upsets the physical state associated with self-possession, with the possession of a recognized and stable individuality.

Obscenity is whatever gives the Judge an erection.

Obscenity is tested, as a concept, when one dares to look at something that he has an unbearable desire to see but has forbidden himself to look at. It disappears and a certain liberation ensues at that moment when one feels that everything that one had wanted to see has been revealed.

Obscenity is a moral concept in the verbal arsenal of the establishment, which abuses the term by applying it, not to expressions of its own morality but to those of another. Obscene is not the picture of a naked woman who exposes her pubic hair but that of a fully clad general who exposes his medals rewarded in a war of aggression... obscene is not the ritual of the hippies but the declaration of a high dignitary of the church that war is necessary for peace.

Obscenity is a moral concept in the verbal arsenal of the establishment, which abuses the term by applying it, not to expressions of its own morality but to those of another.

Obscenity lies in what is hidden. Nothing that is expressed is obscene.

Obscenity is completely misunderstood. While everybody says sex is obscene, the only true obscenity is war.