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Originally posted by Kalleh:
They are, by and large, a different breed of students - very intellectual and a little geekish.

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As the quotation wrongly attributed to Voltaire puts it, "I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

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The chapter on Helvétius contains a famous quotation that was subsequently misattributed to Voltaire himself. While discussing the persecution of Helvétius for his book "On the Mind" (which was publicly burned), Hall wrote:

What the book could never have done for itself, or for its author, persecution did for them both. 'On the Mind' became not the success of a season, but one of the most famous books of the century. The men who had hated it, and had not particularly loved Helvétius, flocked round him now. Voltaire forgave him all injuries, intentional or unintentional. 'What a fuss about an omelette!' he had exclaimed when he heard of the burning. How abominably unjust to persecute a man for such an airy trifle as that! 'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,' was his attitude now.

The phrase "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it", which was originally intended as a summary (by Hall) of Voltaire's attitude, was widely misread as a literal quotation from Voltaire.

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Then the Dauphin read it.

The privilege to publish was revoked; the censor who approved its publication was sacked. A rolling wave of official condemnation began, culminating with the Pope (Jan. 31, 1759) and the Parliament of Paris (Feb. 6) and public book-burning by the hangman (Feb. 10), an honor shared with Voltaire's ``Natural Law.''

On the principle that anything so unpopular with the government must ipso facto be pretty good, the official condemnation permanently established Helvétius's philosophical repute among the fashionable salon crowd, and rehabilitated him among the intellectual elite as well, to a great extent. He became popular in Protestant Germany and England.

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
There are many quotes that are wrongly attributed.

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Originally posted by Geoff:
Very good, B35. Yet weren't both Cornell and Harvard founded by religious types who wanted to teach people conformity to their brand of religion?

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Does "liberal" now mean loony leftie? Not to my mind, but those who bill themselves as "conservatives" seem to have convinced the majority that that's the case.

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Originally posted by arnie:

Dunno how you can say that. Only "loony righties" think that and I doubt they've convinced anything other than a small percentage, let alone a majority.

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Originally posted by tinman:
ditto-heads .