Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: tyme on July 01, 2005, 08:29:49 PM
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"Out of every 100 men, 10 shouldnt even be there, 80 are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior and he will bring the others back. Heraclitus
...or, another formulation...
"Of every one hundred men they send me, eighty of them are nothing but targets. Ten of them shouldnt even be here. Of the ten that are left, nine are real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they the battle make. Ah, but one, one is a warrior, and I must find him, for he will bring the others back, and he the battle wins. --Heraclitus
Everyone and his dog is quoting it these days, but I've gone through all the numbered heraclitus fragments and there's not even anything paraphrased like that. http://philoctetes.free.fr/uniheraclite.htm
representative sources:
http://www.tradoc.army.mil/pao/TNSarchives/January04/010904.htm
http://www.thepraesidiumgroup.com/words.html (third quote down)
Its first presence on usenet is july 15, 2003, which suggests the quote is recent (and attribution faked).
Any ideas?
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Most likely it was in some work of fiction. Somebody who read it liked it and decided that attributing it to a real historical figure would make it sound better on the internet.
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Well, this is something.... from Amazon's full-text search:
0976199408 Kenneth R. Murray Training at the Speed of Life, Vol. 1 p. 48
Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn't even be there. Eighty are just targets. Nine are real fighters and we are lucky to have them for they make the battle. Ah, but the one. One is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.
--Heraclitus, greek philosopher, around 500 B.C.
(published 2004)
1581600496 Gabriel Suarez Tactical Rifle p. 237
Of every One-Hundred men, Ten shouldn't even be there,
Eighty are nothing but targets,
Nine are real fighters...
We are lucky to have them...They make the battle.
Ah but the One, One of them is a Warrior... and He will bring the others back.
--Hericletus c. 500 B.C.
(published 1999)
1419602632 Richard A. Nable Confronting Evil p. 7
For every one hundred men you send us, ten should not even be here. Eighty are nothing but targets. Nine of them are real fighters; we are lucky to have them, they the battle make. Ah, but the one. One of them is a warrior and he will bring the others back.
--Heraclitus, philospher/tactician, around 500 B.C.
(published 2005)
I asked Gabe Suarez where he got it, and he said from Warrior Words (by Peter Tsouras). I wonder if that book gives a source for the aphorism.
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You can say "attributed to Heraclitus" and get away with it, though, I think.
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The other two authors were brilliant.
(paraphrasing) "Well, it's a quote from Heraclitus, of course! I don't have the source but you can look it up... he wrote it."
Only Gabe gave a legitimate source.
Now to track down a copy of Tsouras's Warrior Words...