"The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards, and its fighting done by fools."
I love that quote. It has two of my favorite words: scholars and warriors. Even better, the Greek philosopher-general Thucydides said it.
Except, he didn't.
Everything I know is a lie.
Anyway, I found the source of the quote.
"The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking done by cowards."
pg 85 Charles George Gordon by Sir William Francis Butler. 12
It's not as catchy, but the source is no less storied. I don't know if it's Gordon or Butler. There are no quotation marks in the text.
Gordon was a British Major-General who died in the Siege of Khartoum on January 26, 1885.
My train of thought derailed after learning the history of the quote. It reminded me of a podcast series by former SEAL Jocko Willink. The topic was the book On the…
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