Finishing up with List Universe's March 9th list of top fifteen military and political misquotes. I found this to be very interesting. Thanks.
#5. EDMUND BURKE-- "It is necessary only for good men to do nothing for evil to triumph." This never appears in any of his writings.
#4. PLATO-- "Only the dead have seen the end of war." Douglas MacArthur gave a speech and attributed it to Plato when George Santayana actually wrote it.
#3. OTTO VON BISMARCK-- "To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making." The 1869 Daily Cleveland Herald reported that Godfrey Saxe said, "Laws, like sausage, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made."
#2. ANDREW JACKSON-- "To the victors belong the spoils." Even though he definitely agreed with it. Actually, this was said by an ally of New York Governor William marcy in 1928, telling how Jackson would dole out appointments and jobs.
#1. ADMIRAL ISOROKU YAMAMOTO-- "I fear that all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant." Actually, it was from the screenwriters of the 1970 movie "Tora! Tora! Tora!" The admiral definitely believed Japan could not win a long war with the US.
In 1942, he did write: "A military man can scarcely pride himself on having smitten a sleeping enemy; it is more a matter of shame, simply, for the one smitten. I would rather you made your appraisal after seeing what the enemy does, since it is certain that, angered and outraged, he will soon launch a determined counterattack."
Made You Think. --Da Coot
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