Context

This is a misquote often credited to Voltaire.

This is one of Voltaire's most quotable quotes and a doozy of a defense for freedom of speech. Sure, we may not agree with you—in fact, we might think you're a complete moron—but that doesn't mean we don't think you should be allowed to shout your stupidity to the mountaintops. Heck, we'd even die standing for your right to say dumb things. Score one for freedom of expression.

Trouble is Voltaire never actually said or wrote this. It comes from a 1906 biography, The Friends of Voltaire, that was written by an English writer named Beatrice Evelyn Hall. The author was talking about the time Voltaire stood up for another writer whose books had been burned. Sure, he thought the guy was an idiot, but believed he had a right to publish his silly and misguided thoughts if he wanted to. Besides, burning books is never cool.

In reality, Beatrice Evelyn Hall meant to sum up Voltaire's attitude towards freedom of expression, not quote him directly. But, because she put his words in little quotation marks, the world took them to be Voltaire's own.

And you thought messing up quotes was only for modern folks.

Where you've heard it

Oh, man. This quote is a pretty famous one and it gets used whenever people start talking about free speech. Now you can tell those crusaders for freedom that they're misquoting. They should love that.

Additional Notable References: 

• On an episode of the Family Guy, someone tells Peter he's a fat dead-beat loser, and Peter responds with "Fat dead-beat loser? Well sir, while I may not agree with what you say I'll defend to the death your right to say it."
• This quote has confused a lot of people.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Do you sound a little haughty when you claim you'd die for free speech? Yeah, a little bit. Sorry.