bogus quotes strike again?

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Fri May 27 00:59:41 UTC 2011


The following quote attributed to  Robert E. Lee is cited in various
cyberplaces and even in one or two books:

"To be a good soldier you must love the army. But to be a good officer you
must be willing to order the death of the thing you love....That is one
reason why there are so very few good officers. Although there are many good
men."

Not in YBQ.

These are not Lee's words anyway, AFAIK. They're the words of  "Robert E.
Lee" in a novel about Gettysburg called _The Killer Angels_ (1974) by a
wildly popular historical novelist named Michael Shaara.

Corrections happily acknowledged.

JL




--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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