WHO SAID IT?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 429, 12 September 1947, Page 5

WHO SAID IT?

Sir,-With reference to the question put by "Inquirer" in a recent issue, I can inform him that ‘the quotation referred to appears in Voltaire’s Candide. However, if smemory serves me right, the quotation correctly stated is, "I may disagree to the death with what you say, but I will defend with my life your right to say it,’ a sentiment which, if acted on by everyone, would make the world a better nlace for all.

ERIC W.

BRAITHWAITE

(Mt. Albert).

Sir,-The passage quoted by your correspondent in a recent edition is from Voltaire, in qa work published in

| 1737, I think,

A. G.

TODD

(Wellington).

Sir,-The* quotation "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,’ was attributed to Voltaire by S. G. Tallentyre in her book The Friends of Voltaire published in 1906. The sentence was widely quoted, but students of Voltaire were unable to place the original; Miss Tallentyre, although she had published the sentence as. an actual quotation, then admitted that it was rather a paraphrase of Voltaire’s attitude toward De L'Esprit by Helvetius, "Think for yourselves, but let others enjoy the same privilege.’. As the quotation is hardly a paraphrase of this, and because no similar sentence appears to have been written by Voltaire, it seems a fair thing to say that the author was Miss Tallentyre herself. Much as-I would like to say that I knew this all the time, I must admit that ‘these facts have been taken from Stevenson’s Book of Quotations.

W. R.

MAIDEN

(Wellington).

(Much as we also would like to say we knew this all the time, we must admit we' thought our other correspondents were right until we received Mr, Maiden’s letter.-Ed.)