If you really don't know who said it, then you say, "Voltaire said it." In the Chinese-speaking world, this is a common routine of "recognizing famous people with famous words". Voltaire always seemed to be able to say something that was both charming and poetic, but also deep in thought.
Evelyn Hall's statement that "I do not agree with every word you say, but I will defend to the death your right to speak" (from Evelyn Hall's book "Voltaire's Friend"), is hung in Voltaire's name, which is an example.
Another example is the saying: No snowflake is innocent during an avalanche.
In a sense, "there is no snowflake of innocence" is more in line with voltaire's characteristics of literary and ideological nature than "vowing to defend dissenting opinions to the death". Therefore, in the Chinese network, "there is no snowflake of innocence" is always tied to "Voltaire said". Although when this sentence is quoted frequently, it has been clearly stated that its real speaker is someone else.
Voltaire
In fact, the popularity of "no snowflake innocence" and related sentences is a phenomenon of transmission after the 21st century, especially after 2010. Combing through the circulation of this sentence in the Chinese network, you can find something interesting.
Before 2010, this phrase was rarely mentioned, and the only traces that can be found on the Internet is a knowledge post published on October 20, 2008 by the website Big Ears English , "The 100 Most Interesting Quotes". The 21st sentence of these 100 quotes is "Voltaire's Quote": No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible. It is impossible to verify whether the "100 most interesting quotes" are the publisher's own collation or the reprinting of other people's content, but in terms of the sentences included, it is difficult to be rigorous and accurate. The most typical is that the title is "100 famous sayings", and there are actually 101 famous words arranged. Although this knowledge post is not reliable, the origin value of its Internet memory cannot be ignored. In the absence of external intervention and correction, "Voltaire said" would greatly affect subsequent searches.
Of course, after the "Big Ears English" website published the "100 most interesting quotes", the so-called "Voltaire Quotes" did not immediately heat up, and it was silent for several years. In the meantime, there is a more important episode, which causes the "Voltaire Quote" to be accidentally "hit by the waist". On November 21, 2011, Caixin's New Century Weekly no. 45 published a column by scholar Liu Yu entitled "The Mediocrity of Evil." In an article reflecting on the crimes of the Nazi demon Adolf Eichmann (more commonly translated as Adolf Eichmann), Liu Yu writes: "The proverbial cloud: 'No drop of rain thinks it caused a flood.'" When a chain of evil deeds is long enough to see the whole picture, people at every link have reason to feel innocent. ”
Everyone can see that the proverb "dripping rain into flood" in Liu Yuwen is close in meaning to "there is no snowflake of innocence". Liu Yu's view of "the evil of mediocrity" frames the reference to "the theory of innocence without a snowflake" in the later Chinese text. This phrase is generally used to discern the system of responsibility to attack the blindness of the mediocre and the cruelty of online violence.
Liu Yu's "The Mediocrity of Evil" was later included in his column "The Water Level of Ideas" (Zhejiang University Press, January 2013). Shortly after the publication of this book, that is, in April 2013, a Douban netizen named "Danish Mouse" wrote a post-reading article entitled "Reading the water level > of < concepts". It is worth noting that in the text, the "Danish mouse" commented on the article "The Mediocrity of Evil" and said, "There is such a sentence: when there is an avalanche, no snowflake feels that it is wrong. Although the author does not point out the speaker when quoting this sentence, he uses the relatively vague "there is such a sentence". But the reference in this post-reading feeling undoubtedly activated the "theory of innocence without a snowflake" on the Internet.
In June 2013, there was a Q&A title that read, "When an avalanche occurs, no snowflake feels its responsibility." Similar problems arise in life, how to solve them? And one of the netizens who won the most approval quoted Gustav Le Pen's view in "The Ragged Crowd" to explain that groups never admit their crimes, even if they put the facts in front of them.
It is difficult to confirm whether the Q&A of the Unknown is the starting point of the viral spread of the "no snowflake innocence theory", but from the expressions of netizens, people seem to have reached an emotional consensus on the responsibilities that individuals should shoulder in mass incidents.
Since then, the approximate sentence form derived from the "no snowflake innocence theory" has appeared in articles of various genres and various communication media with increasing frequency. After 2015, the "innocence of no snowflake" has become a trend of Chinese the Internet. This sentence may be used to denounce the harm of online violence to ordinary individuals, or to judge the responsibility of those around them in the process of corruption of cadres, or to examine the mistakes of every detail in major accidents...
But no matter what the occasion and the background of the quote, "Voltaire said that no snowflake is innocent at the time of the avalanche" is the vast majority. Differing opinions about the provenance of this famous quote are drowning in the ocean of the Internet.
This time, however, the truth is in the hands of a few. The true copyright of "There Is No Snowflake of Innocence" belongs to the Polish Jewish poet Stanisław Berger. Jerzy· Lec), this quote from his collection of aphorisms, More Unkempt Thoughts.
Stanislav Lake
Stanislav Lake was a legendary figure, born in 1909 and died in 1966. He worked in journalism in his early years. World War II broke out and the Germans invaded Poland. As a Jew, Stanislav was forced to flee to Romania. However, on his way to escape, he was captured by the Germans and imprisoned in the Ukrainian concentration camp in Ternopil, where he was soon sentenced to death. Stanislav was taken into the woods, where a latte dug a grave for himself. Heaven favored, and the guards who guarded Stanislav were hungry and went to dinner, leaving only one man to accompany the dying killer. So Stanislav saw the opportunity and killed the stunned guard with a shovel. He then put on the uniforms of the dead guards and sneaked back to Warsaw and found the underground resistance. He was involved in the struggle against the Nazis until the end of World War II.
Stanislav's work in his youth was mainly lyric poetry, and in his later years he became known for his creation of aphorisms and aphorisms, and was hailed as the last master of satirical art in modern times. Confusion of Thoughts is the finale of his series of aphorisms in his later years, published in 1966, the year of the author's death. In the English version of "Confusion of Thoughts," the original phrase "no snowflake innocent" is: No Snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.
Obviously, the well-known phrase "no snowflake is innocent during an avalanche" is different from Stanislav's original version, with a slight change in sentence form and subtle change in meaning. The original version of "believing oneself responsible" was a subjective determination, while the popular version of "innocence" was an objective judgment. Interestingly, Stanislav's original English sentence pattern is exactly the same as the "Voltaire Quote" in the "100 Most Interesting Quotes".
In fact, since the "no snowflake innocence theory" became popular on the Chinese Network, those who insisted on "originating from Stanislav" have been stubbornly demanding copyright from those who think that "Voltaire said", and it is not difficult to find the mark of their struggle on the Internet.
For example, on December 24, 2015, netizen BurningMo answered Zhihu's question" "Where is the origin of the phrase 'No snowflake feels responsible during the avalanche'?" At that time, it was clearly stated that the source was not Voltaire, but Stanislav.
For another example, on November 3, 2018, netizen Cao Zhe answered Zhihu's question "How to understand the sentence 'When an avalanche, no snowflake is innocent', is there any reason?" Why? At that time, it was not only stated that this was Stanislav's famous sentence, but also a detailed interpretation of the meaning of this sentence.
Unfortunately, the "right man" did not become the protagonist in the carnival of the Internet, and "Voltaire said" still commanded the crowd. A maxim satirizing the brainlessness of the mediocre and the disorder of the Internet was quoted in a serious manner by the public. This has to be said to be a huge irony.
What is even more ridiculous is that long before the "no snowflake innocence theory" prevailed Chinese network, there were already published written materials to verify the identity of this sentence. Page 581 of the Treasury of Introductions to Foreign Quotes (Henan Education Publishing House, December 1992, edited by Liu Xianzhi, Tang Keman, and Zhuang Tao) is very clear: "No snowflake at the time of the avalanche thinks that it is responsible" comes from Stanislav Lake's "Confusion of Thoughts".
Many years ago, someone put up a signpost on the side of the road, but the latecomers still went farther and farther in the wrong direction. "Voltaire said", the fault is not Voltaire, he lived more than two centuries ago, neither for himself nor for falsification. What's wrong is the distracting snowflakes on the Internet.