We sleep peaceably in our beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "We sleep peaceably in our beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf." in the context of "This has commonly been attributed to Orwell but has not been found in any of his writings. Quote Investigator found the earliest known appearance in a 1993 Washington Times essay by Richard Grenier: "As George Orwell pointed out, people sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." The absence of quotation marks indicates Grenier was using his own words to convey Orwell's opinion; thus it may have originated as a paraphrase of his statement in Notes on Nationalism (May 1945): "Those who 'abjure' violence can only do so because others are committing violence on their behalf." There are also similar sentiments expressed in an essay which Orwell wrote on Rudyard Kipling, quoting from one of Kipling's poems: "Yes, making mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep." In the same essay Orwell also wrote of Kipling: "He sees clearly that men can only be highly civilized while other men, inevitably less civilized, are there to guard and feed them."" to mean that wisdom is timeless.