You probably heard the following quote before:

“People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”

It’s old. It’s been around. It’s extremely genuine. It’s extremely true.

That is, everything but its byline.

You see, a lot of people attribute it to the iconic author/humble oracle George Orwell — and they’re, unfortunately, flat-out wrong.

According to the website Quote Investigator, the words were written by Washington Times writer Richard Grenier in 1993, who for some reason claimed they were conjured by the late British novelist.

While it is accurate that Orwell wrote about the idea the quote conveys (he commented on a line in a Rudyard Kipling poem, “O makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep”) he never published words precisely. Author John Le Carré also wrote a similar phrasing in his 1963 novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

Anyway, we came across the following meme on social media recently, and it’s clearly a descendent of the aforementioned transformational aphorism:

https://twitter.com/MilitaryEarth/status/757226253392842752

It’s also … awesome. Blare it from the highest mount. Support those who defend America. It can never be said enough.