“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.—Voltaire” suddenly became the subject of “Quote of the Day” on several websites in 2012, even though Voltaire lived from 1694-1778. The quotation does not appear at all in the Google News Archive. There is no evidence for the quotation in any of Voltaire’s writings. The origin of the quotation is unknown.

Several website forums have posters, posting from 2010 and slightly earlier, who have added the “Voltaire” quotation to their posts. However, the dates might not be accurate and the quotation might have been recently added to the signature of these old posts. The blog Ex Cathedra has the quote in a left-hand column and calls it “Voltaire’s Razor” (after “Occam’s razor”).


Wikipedia: Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃.swa ma.ʁi aʁ.wɛ]; 21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known by his nom de plume Voltaire (pronounced: [vɔl.tɛːʁ]), was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, freedom of expression, free trade and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poetry, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken supporter of social reform, despite strict censorship laws with harsh penalties for those who broke them. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his day.

MiniatureHorseTalk.com
Susanne
Posted 02 May 2007 - 02:28 PM
(...)
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” — Voltaire

Hua Hin Forum
Legend
Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 4:02 pm
(...)
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.”—Voltaire

Hua Hin Forum
MrPlum
Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 4:02 pm
(...)
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.”—Voltaire

Rebellion
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Quote of the day
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” Voltaire

IMGACE
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.”- voltaire
By anonymous – June 8, 2012
(The quotation is given under a picture of Voltaire—ed.)

The Daily Irrelevant
Quote
Posted on June 24th, 2012 at 17:07 by John Sinteur
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.”
–Voltaire

Zion’s Trumpet
Voltaire Has Already Warned Us…
June 27, 2012
“To learn who rules over you simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” ~Voltaire

Share Crazy
Wednesday 27 June 2012
QUOTE OF THE DAY
To find out who rules over you, simple determine who you’re not allowed to criticise
- Voltaire

Attack the System
July 17, 2012
Quote of the Day
by Keith Preston
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” – Voltaire

Amazon.com Politics Forum
Initial post: Aug 13, 2012 6:25:18 PM PDT
left coaster says:
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” Voltaire
So who rules?

Posted on Aug 13, 2012 6:57:06 PM PDT
T.Paine says:
Would this include Obama since everytime we criticize him we are called racist?

The Biz of Life
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Quote of the Day: Voltaire
To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.
~ Voltaire

This is from the Voltaire wiki quotes page
( http://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voltaire )
Section on misattributed “Voltaire quotes”:
“"Few versions of the quote appear online before 2012. Appears to be a gloss of a statement by Kevin Strom, an American Neo-Nazi activist. Self-attributed here in a passage doubting the veracity of the Holocaust:
By the way, may I remind you that in some nations of the West, it is actually illegal to doubt Jewish lies like these and one can be fined and imprisoned for doing so. That brings to mind the maxim that I stated several years ago: If you want to know the identity of the real rulers of your society, merely ask yourself this question: Who is it that I am not permitted to criticize? - National Vanguard, “Jewish Truth (and Jewish Jokes)”, 1/6/2011"”