[Ads-l] Saying: Hence, we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Wed Jun 15 21:29:15 UTC 2022


Canadian journalist James Coyne of "The Globe and Mail" asked me via
twitter about the remark in the subject line which is often attributed
to Winston Churchill. Variants of this saying have been applied to
Finns and Ukrainians.

Here is a link to the Quote Investigator article:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2022/06/15/heroes-greeks/

The earliest match I located appeared within a 1941 article in "The
Manchester Guardian" by Greek diplomat Dimitrios Kaklamanos. The
attribution was anonymous:

[ref] 1941 April 18, The Manchester Guardian, The Campaign in Greece
by Demetrius Caclamanos (former Greek Minister to Britain), Start Page
4, Quote Page 6, Column 2, Manchester, England. (Newspapers_com)
[/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
It was rightly said that “people will not say any more that the Greeks
fight like heroes but heroes fight like Greeks.” Yet other heroes
fresh from their victories in Africa are fighting at their side.
[End excerpt]

Feedback on the QI article would be welcome
Garson O’Toole

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