Quite right Terry, the "I disapprove..." quote is by Hall speaking of Voltaire, and the "Monsieur l'abbé..." quote supposed to have inspired Hall seems to have been made up:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voltaire "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Though these words are regularly attributed to Voltaire, they were first used by Evelyn Beatrice Hall, writing under the pseudonym of Stephen G Tallentyre in The Friends of Voltaire (1906), as a summation of Voltaire's beliefs on freedom of thought and expression. Another possible source for the quote was proposed by Norbert Guterman, editor of "A Book of French Quotations," who noted a letter to M. le Riche (February 6, 1770) in which Voltaire is quoted as saying: "Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write." This remark, however, does not appear in the letter. Michel Terry: > Quite right, it was Evelyn Beatrice Hall: > > http://www.classroomtools.com/voltaire.htm > > However, she was speaking of Voltaire. ;-) Frank: > And incidently, you might be interested to know that > the quote often attributed to Voltaire is a myth - 8-) > though to be fair, he would probably endorse it.
