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Who really said it

Why Should Any Man Be Allowed to Buy a Printing Press and Disseminate Pernicious Opinions?

Written by George Riddell 1865–1934 · British newspaper proprietor & diarist
Verified In copyright

Riddell wrote these words in his diary entry for 12 June 1920, published in Lord Riddell’s Intimate Diary of the Peace Conference and After, 1918–1923 (1933). He gave them as a speech by Lenin that he had described to Winston Churchill. That speech has never been found, so the documented source is Riddell’s own text, and it is the earliest one Quote Investigator ↗ has located.

Last verified 1 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“Why Should Any Man Be Allowed to Buy a Printing Press and Disseminate Pernicious Opinions?” George Riddell, diary entry for 12 June 1920, giving the words as a speech by Lenin; Lord Riddell's Intimate Diary of the Peace Conference and After, 1918–1923 (London: Gollancz, 1933). · Verbatim: “And as to the freedom of the Press, why should any man be allowed to buy a printing press and disseminate pernicious opinions calculated to embarrass the Government?”

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights presumed held by Estate of George Riddell, 1st Baron Riddell). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

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Provenance

The diary entry

Work
Lord Riddell’s Intimate Diary of the Peace Conference and After, 1918–1923
Entry
12 June 1920 (“Lunched with Winston”)
First published
London: Victor Gollancz, 1933; New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1934
Page
203

I told Winston of Lenin’s speech, in which he said that the day of pure democracy was finished and that freedom of speech and the freedom of the Press were its two chief characteristics. “Why should these things be allowed?” he went on. “Why should a Government which is doing what it believes to be right allow itself to be criticised? It would not allow opposition by lethal weapons. Ideas are much more fatal things than guns. And as to the freedom of the Press, why should any man be allowed to buy a printing press and disseminate pernicious opinions calculated to embarrass the Government?” Diary, 12 June 1920

In the original, the popular line sits in the middle of a sentence and goes on with “calculated to embarrass the Government.” Riddell puts it inside quotation marks as words from a speech by Lenin. Quote Investigator reads “he went on” as referring to Lenin, not Churchill.

Full scan of the 1933 Gollancz edition (Internet Archive)

How we traced it

  • Riddell’s diary entry for 12 June 1920 records the passage word for word. It is in the Internet Archive scan of the 1933 London edition ↗.
  • Quote Investigator ↗ traces the line to this entry, verified on paper in the 1934 US edition, page 203. It names this the earliest citation it has found.
  • In 1942 H. L. Mencken’s New Dictionary of Quotations credited a reworded version to “Nikolai Lenin: Speech in Moscow, 1920,” adding an opening sentence that is not in Riddell’s diary (Quote Investigator ↗).
  • In 1984 Piers Brendon’s Churchill biography credited the sentence to Churchill, and The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations (2007) repeated that. QI calls the Churchill credit almost certainly a mistake, caused by the pronoun “he” (Quote Investigator ↗).
In copyright

The line first appeared in print in Riddell’s diary, published in London in 1933 and in New York in 1934. Both dates are after the 1931 cutoff, so we treat the book as in copyright in the US and quote only a short excerpt; the US term runs to the end of 2028. Riddell died in 1934, so the text is likely public domain in the UK and other life+70 countries. The Internet Archive scan is labeled “out of copyright,” but we do not rely on that label.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Who else gets the credit

This one sentence is credited to three different people. Every version goes back to a single diary entry.

Vladimir Lenin Unconfirmed

Riddell presented the words as a Lenin speech, and Mencken’s 1942 dictionary printed them as “Speech in Moscow, 1920.” Researchers have not found this speech in Lenin’s papers or collected works. In 1970 Morris Kominsky’s The Hoaxers listed the quote as “Lenin Fabrication, No. 18” (Quote Investigator ↗). Lenin did attack “freedom of the press” in his 5 August 1921 letter to G. Myasnikov ↗, but in different words.

Winston Churchill Wrong

Piers Brendon’s 1984 biography and The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations (2007) credit the sentence to Churchill. In the diary, Riddell is telling Churchill about Lenin’s speech. Quote Investigator ↗ calls the Churchill credit almost certainly wrong, caused by reading “he went on” as Churchill.

The “freedom of speech” opening Added later

Mencken’s version and many later ones begin “Why should freedom of speech and freedom of the press be allowed?” That sentence is not in Riddell’s diary. QI says it was made up from Riddell’s introductory remark and added to the front of the quote (Quote Investigator ↗).

The documented source is George Riddell’s diary entry for 12 June 1920, where he gives the words as Lenin’s. Whether Lenin ever said them depends on Riddell’s memory alone, with nothing else to back it up (Quote Investigator ↗).

Context

Why it traveled

The sentence became a popular anti-communist quote after the Second World War. A 1947 National Association of Broadcasters book and a 1948 Lethbridge Herald article both printed it as Lenin’s (Quote Investigator ↗). It suited them well: a revolutionary openly asking why anyone should be free to criticize the state.

The source is less tidy. The words come secondhand from a British newspaper owner, a close confidant of Lloyd George ↗, retelling a speech over lunch with Churchill. No one has found the speech itself.

Ideas are much more fatal things than guns.

Doubts recorded over the years

In 1970 Morris Kominsky traced the Lenin version back as far as a 1956 speech by Simon E. Sobeloff, US Solicitor General from 1954 to 1956 (QI spells the name “Soboleff”), published in Nieman Reports. Asked for his source, Sobeloff said he had “read it somewhere.” In 1989 Paul F. Boller Jr. and John George, in They Never Said It, also questioned the Lenin credit (Quote Investigator ↗).

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Freedom Power Justice

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigatorquoteinvestigator.com

The full trace: Riddell's 1920 diary, Mencken 1942, Kominsky 1970, Brendon 1984 and the Oxford dictionary.
Lord Riddell's Intimate Diary (1933 scan)archive.org

Full text of the London Gollancz edition with the 12 June 1920 entry.
Open Library recordopenlibrary.org

Catalog record listing the Gollancz 1933 and Reynal & Hitchcock 1934 editions.
George Riddell, 1st Baron Riddellen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the newspaper owner and diarist.
Lenin, letter to G. Myasnikov (1921)marxists.org

What Lenin actually wrote about freedom of the press, in his own words.

The diarist

About the source

George Riddell

1865–1934 · Newspaper proprietor & diarist

George Riddell, 1st Baron Riddell, trained as a solicitor and by 1903 was managing director of the News of the World. He was a close confidant and financial supporter of David Lloyd George from 1908 to 1922, and represented the British press at the Paris Peace Conference. His published diaries record conversations with the leading politicians of the day.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

George Riddell, Lord Riddell’s Intimate Diary of the Peace Conference and After, 1918–1923 (London: Victor Gollancz, 1933; New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1934), 203, entry for June 12, 1920.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Why Should Any Man Be Allowed to Buy a Printing Press and Disseminate Pernicious Opinions?’?” Last verified 1 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/why-should-any-man-be-allowed-to-buy-a-printing-press-and/

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