Voltaire's quote? ("I disagree with what you say, but I defend right to say it")

Wed Feb 8 17:58:13 UTC 2006

I've been thinking about this quotation during the cartoon riots. "I  diagree 
with what you say, but I defend to the death your right to say it." It's  the 
principle of free speech in the Western World.
...
Does Fred have it from Voltaire? What's the origin form of the  saying?
...
...
...
_http://www.classroomtools.com/voltaire.htm_ 
(http://www.classroomtools.com/voltaire.htm) 

Voltaire wrote, .... 
In early 2002, a friend e-mailed me.  He asked for help in tracking down  a 
quotation.  In part he wrote, 
I'm getting stumped and can't seem to find what I need on the internet.  
There is a famous quotation that I can only paraphrase: "I disagree with what  you 
have to say but will fight to the death to protect your right to say  it." 
Do you have the actual quotation and the author (and maybe the  year)?
It seemed like an easy task, just visit _a quotations web  site_ 
(http://www.classroomtools.com/refworks.htm#Quotations)  and "Voila!".  It turned out to 
be a bit more interesting than  that. 
Here is what my search revealed. 
    1.  The Recording Industry Association 
(_http://web.archive.org/web/20021020063641/http://www.riaa.com/Freedom-History.cfm_ 
(http://web.archive.org/web/20021020063641/http:/www.riaa.com/Freedom-History.cfm) )  attributes a quote 
to Voltaire, and states it as, "I disapprove of what you  say, but I will 
defend to the death your right to say it."  
    2.  Another version (http://www.tdstelme.net/~westin/fspeech.htm), 
attributed  to "some Admiral" by a basic training drill sergeant, said, "I may not 
agree  with what you say, but I will defend with my life your RIGHT to say it." 
The  person who put up this page (Larry Westin), writes a little further 
down, that  he later came to know it was from Voltaire.  
    3.  Aphorisms Galore also attributes it to Voltaire 
(_http://web.archive.org/web/20041010004816/http://www.ag.wastholm.net/aphorism/A-2274_ 
(http://web.archive.org/web/20041010004816/http:/www.ag.wastholm.net/aphorism/A-2274) ),  
and cites it as, "I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall  
defend, to the death, your right to say it."  
    4.  A Google search I ran 
(_http://www.google.com/search?q=voltaire+say+it_ (http://www.google.com/search?q=voltaire+say+it) ) returned  a number of 
links to pages describing the quote.  
    5.  This result 
(_http://web.archive.org/web/20040225201605/http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~mlewis/q-volt.html_ 
(http://web.archive.org/web/20040225201605/http:/gladstone.uoregon.edu/~mlewis/q-volt.html) ),  apparently from 
somebody at the University of Oregon, cites it as follows, "7.  I disapprove of what 
you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say  it. {Cited 
frequently, but possibly spurious}"  
    6.  Bartleby.com (_http://www.bartleby.com/66/40/63040.html_ 
(http://www.bartleby.com/66/40/63040.html) ) provides the  following citation:

The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. 
NUMBER: 63040  
QUOTATION: I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death  your 
right to say it.  
ATTRIBUTION: Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778), French  
philosopher, author. 
[note: the first part of the following sentence is  missing in the online 
original]
what you write, but I would give my life  to make it possible for you to 
continue to write.”  
Real name François Marie Arouet.

    1.  Along the line that the quote may be spuriously attributed to 
Voltaire  (thus explaining why none of the above attribute it to a specific work or  
date), is the following found at 
_http://public.logica.com/~stepneys/cyc/l/liberty.htm_ (http://public.logica.com/~stepneys/cyc/l/liberty.htm)   

Beatrice Hall 
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your  right to 
say it.
-- The Friends of Voltaire,  1906

The phrase "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death  
your right to say it" is widely attributed to Voltaire, but cannot be found  in 
his writings. With good reason. The phrase was invented by a later author  as 
an epitome of his attitude. It appeared in The Friends of Voltaire  (1906), 
written by Evelyn Beatrice Hall under the pseudonym S[tephen] G.  Tallentyre. ... 

Hall wrote:  
...The men who had hated [the book], and had not particularly loved  
Helvétius, flocked round him now. Voltaire forgave him all injuries,  intentional or 
unintentional. 'What a fuss about an omelette!' he had  exclaimed when he heard 
of the burning. How abominably unjust to persecute  a man for such an airy 
trifle as that! 'I disapprove of what you say, but  I will defend to the death 
your right to say it,' was his attitude now.  
... 
Hall herself claimed later that she had been paraphrasing Voltaire's  words 
in his Essay on Tolerance: "Think for yourselves and let others  enjoy the 
privilege to do so too." -- _http://www.plexoft.com/SBF/V02.html_ 
(http://www.plexoft.com/SBF/V02.html)  
I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your  right 
to mis-attribute this quote to Voltaire.
-- Avram Grumer,  rec.arts.sf.written, May 2000

    1.  Finally, the pertinent section from the page Grumer cites 
(_http://www.plexoft.com/SBF/V02.html_ (http://www.plexoft.com/SBF/V02.html) ) that 
purports to  explain how Beatrice Hall came to attribute the quote to Voltaire: 

The phrase ``I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death  
your right to say it'' is widely attributed to Voltaire, but cannot be found  in 
his writings. With good reason. The phrase was invented by a later author  as 
an epitome of his attitude.  
It appeared in The Friends of Voltaire (1906), written by Evelyn  Beatrice 
Hall under the pseudonym S[tephen] G. Tallentyre. Chapter VII is  devoted to 
Helvétius (1715-1771), whom she depicts as a kindly, generous  person, with a 
hint of more talent to raise him above mediocrity. He married  and settled in the 
sticks, with a new wife who was unfashionably old (32),  and they were happy. 
This was ended by his tragic aspiration, to earn some  small glory for 
himself as a philosopher.  
In 1758, he published ``De l'Esprit,'' which Hall renders ``On the  Mind.'' 
>From the little Hall says of it directly, I take it that this was a  
moral-relativist tract, adducing bad social conditions as the cause of  immoral 
behavior, regarding humans essentially as animals, and skeptical of  the validity of 
moral claims generally.  
This was unpopular with everyone - secular philosophers, all of the  church, 
the government. It certainly got him noticed, but not by all at  once. 
Voltaire immediately regarded the work as a serious disappointment  from one who had 
been a somewhat promising protege. He was most insulted to  have been compared 
in it with lesser intellectual lights (Crébillon and  Fontenelle). It was 
widely criticized by other wits of their enlightened  social circle. For a few 
months, however, it escaped the notice of the  government.  
Then the Dauphin read it.  
The privilege to publish was revoked; the censor who approved its  
publication was sacked. A rolling wave of official condemnation began,  culminating with 
the Pope (Jan. 31, 1759) and the Parliament of Paris (Feb.  6) and public 
book-burning by the hangman (Feb. 10), an honor shared with  Voltaire's ``Natural 
Law.''  
On the principle that anything so unpopular with the government must ipso  
facto be pretty good, the official condemnation permanently established  
Helvétius's philosophical repute among the fashionable salon crowd, and  
rehabilitated him among the intellectual elite as well, to a great extent.  He became 
popular in Protestant Germany and England.  
Hall wrote:  
...The men who had hated [the book], and had not particularly loved  
Helvétius, flocked round him now. Voltaire forgave him all injuries,  intentional or 
unintentional. `What a fuss about an omelette!' he had  exclaimed when he heard 
of the burning. How abominably unjust to persecute  a man for such an airy 
trifle as that! `I disapprove of what you say, but  I will defend to the death 
your right to say it,' was his attitude  now. But he soon came, as a Voltaire 
would come, to swearing that  there was no more materialism in `On the Mind' 
than in Locke, and a  thousand more daring things in `The Spirit of Laws.'  
(Boldface added here for emphasis.) 
Friends is not a scholarly work, but Hall is fairly scrupulous throughout  
the book to state within the text whether she is quoting speech or text, and  
whether various reports are first-person or likely hearsay. I believe it was  
reasonable of her to expect that `I disapprove ... say it' would be  recognized 
as her own characterization of Voltaire's attitude. I think some  readers were 
confused because of the way she follows this with paraphrases  of his spoken 
criticisms.  
In any case, the phrase was too eloquent, so it became quoted, and famous  
names attach themselves to quotes, to the detriment of the less well-known  
originators.  
Hall herself claimed later that she had been paraphrasing Voltaire's  words 
in his Essay on Tolerance:  
``Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so  too.'' 
Hall died in 1919.  
In his A Book of French Quotations (1963), Norbert Guterman  suggested that 
the probable source for the quotation was a line in a 6  February 1770 letter 
to M. le Riche: ``Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you  write, but I would give 
my life to make it possible for you to continue to  write.'' 

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