True And Witty

[poliphilo]

You have to be careful with Voltaire. He's one of those people who said lots of true and witty things and so get credited with true and witty things they didn't say at all. For instance that most famous of all liberal assertions, "I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it," isn't one of his at all but was offered as a summing up of his attitude by the English writer Beatrice Evelyn Hall in her early 20th century book The Friends of Voltaire. Still it's a fair summing up and I don't think Voltaire would have disowned it. Of course if a thing is true and witty it's authorship hardly matters...

Here's another saying attributed to him. It's witty, it's eternally true and every newspaper office, newsroom and social media outfit should have it posted up where all its employees can see it.

"If you want to know who controls you, look at who you are not allowed to criticise."