Flags and Quotations

Robert M. Ross, in his June 23 letter defending flag burning, quoted Samuel Adams as saying, “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Voltaire is generally credited with an almost identical quotation.

Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire was born in 1694 and was 38 years old when Samuel Adams was born.

However, the sentiment is a good one, and Ross will allow my right to say that with all of the serious problems today that require massive amounts of money, funding for the National Endowment for the Arts seems like a frivolous pursuit. How many geniuses has the NEA unearthed?

LILLIAN McCARGAR

Cypress

Bartlett’s “Familiar Quotations” says of “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”: “This sentence is not Voltaire’s but was first used in quoting a letter from Voltaire to Helvetius in ‘The Friends of Voltaire’ (1906) by S.G. Tallentyre. She claims it was a paraphrase of Voltaire’s words in the ‘Essay on Tolerance’: ‘Think for yourself and let other enjoy the privilege to do so too.’ ”