
“Idealism is the death of the body and the imagination. All but freedom, utter freedom, is death”
Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934
"Ignorance of Death" (1940), line 3; cited from John Haffenden (ed.) The Complete Poems (London: Allen Lane, 2000) p. 78.
The Complete Poems
“Idealism is the death of the body and the imagination. All but freedom, utter freedom, is death”
Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934
The Ballot or the Bullet (1964), Speech in Cleveland, Ohio (April 3, 1964)
Context: And now you’re facing a situation where the young Negro’s coming up. They don’t want to hear that "turn the-other-cheek" stuff, no. In Jacksonville, those were teenagers, they were throwing Molotov cocktails. Negroes have never done that before. But it shows you there’s a new deal coming in. There’s new thinking coming in. There’s new strategy coming in. It’ll be Molotov cocktails this month, hand grenades next month, and something else next month. It’ll be ballots, or it’ll be bullets. It’ll be liberty, or it will be death. The only difference about this kind of death—it’ll be reciprocal.
Also found in "Quotations According to Woody Allen" http://books.google.com/books?id=kd41AQAAIAAJ&q=%22quotations+according%22#search_anchor from the New York Times, 1 December 1975.
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,”
Source: The Friends of Voltaire (1906), Ch. 7 : Helvetius : The Contradiction, p. 199; because of quote marks around the original publication of these words, they are often attributed to Voltaire, though Hall was not actually quoting him but summarizing his attitude with the expression. The statement was widely popularized when misattributed to Voltaire as a "Quotable Quote" in Reader's Digest (June 1934), but in response to the misattribution, Hall had been quoted in Saturday Review (11 May 1935), p. 13, as stating: I did not mean to imply that Voltaire used these words verbatim and should be surprised if they are found in any of his works. They are rather a paraphrase of Voltaire's words in the Essay on Tolerance — "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too."
The paragraph in which the statement first appears reads:
Context: '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.
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Variants:
Monsieur l’abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.
I wholly disapprove of what you say—and 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. http://books.google.it/books?id=j3kGAQAAIAAJ&q=%22I+disapprove+of+what+you+say,+but+I+will+defend+to+the+death+your+right+to+say+it%22+intitle:%22The+Friends+of+Voltaire%22&dq=%22I+disapprove+of+what+you+say,+but+I+will+defend+to+the+death+your+right+to+say+it%22+intitle:%22The+Friends+of+Voltaire%22&hl=it&ei=6J3uTbDYKcLX8gOnkLGTBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA
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 (6 February 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" ("Monsieur l'abbé, je déteste ce que vous écrivez, mais je donnerai ma vie pour que vous puissiez continuer à écrire"). This remark, however, does not appear in the letter.
Misattributed
“I receive death threats on a daily basis.”
Wafa Sultan, in: " Wafa Sultan's message to America http://www.examiner.com/article/wafa-sultan-s-message-to-america" at examiner.com, November 2, 2009
Context: I receive death threats on a daily basis. I'm a well-known writer in the Arab world. My writings expose me to millions of devout Muslims who have nothing positive to prove but the sheer cruelty of their teachings. Islam has deprived them of their intellectual ability to face criticism with an effective and acceptable way.
“When you have been close to death it makes you think about life.”
Building a Better Business (2005)