17th September 2010, 09:17 AM
(This post was last modified: 17th September 2010, 09:27 AM by Madweasels.)
Sorry Jack. As Vulpes says, those were not Voltaire's words. They were made up by Evelyn Beatrice Hall in 1906 who used this phrase to sum up Voltaire's opinion in her biography of him. He did say, though, Certainement qui est en droit de vous rendre absurde est en droit de vous rendre injuste, which, together with its context, is condensed in the translation that "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities". He would have cautioned against too much free speech!