Quote
By Voltaire
The supposed right of intolerance is absurd and barbaric. It is the right of the tiger; nay, it is far worse, for tigers do but tear in order to have food, while we rend each other for paragraphs.
- Source
- Toleration and Other Essays (translated by Joseph McCabe), 1912 · Treatise on Toleration, section "Whether intolerance is of natural and human law"
- Read at
- G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, 1912 (Knickerbocker Press); Project Gutenberg text, eBook #64858
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About this quote
From Voltaire's Treatise on Toleration (published 1763), in Joseph McCabe's English translation (1912), in the section headed "Whether intolerance is of natural and human law". Voltaire wrote in French, so this is the translator's wording and other translations differ.