Letter to the President of Congress (9 February 1776)
1770s
“A handful of men, inured to war, proceed to certain victory, while on the contrary numerous armies of raw and undisciplined troops are but multitudes of men dragged to slaughter.”
Book 1
De Re Militari (also Epitoma Rei Militaris), Book I, "The Selection and Training of New Levies"
Original
Etenim in certamine bellorum exercitata paucitas ad uictoriam promptior est, rudis et indocta multitudo exposita semper ad caedem.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus 16
writer of the Later Roman EmpireRelated quotes
“We have fine troops, they are inured.”
Quoted in "Timoshenko: Marshal of the Red Army" - Page 89 - by Walter Mehring - 1942
Though widely attributed to Herodotus this in fact comes from the Histories of Polybius, Book 16, chapter 28: "Some men, like bad runners in the stadium, abandon their purposes when close to the goal; while it is at that particular point, more than at any other, that others secure the victory over their rivals". (Translation of Evelyn S Shuckburgh).
Misattributed
Response to FDA complaint (1954)
Context: The present critical state of international human affairs requires security and safety from nuisance interferences with efforts toward full, honest, determined clarification of man's relationship to nature within and without himself; in other words, his relationship to the Law of Nature. It is not permissible, either morally, legally, or factually, to force a natural scientist to expose his scientific results and methods of basic research in court. This point is accentuated in a world crisis where biopathic men hold in their hands power over ruined, destitute multitudes.
Quoted in "Singapore, 1941-1942" - Page 269 - by Louis Allen - History - 1993
Source: What I Saw At Shiloh (1881), V
Quoted in "I. C. Bagramyan: A Photo Album About A Soviet Marshal" - Yerevan - 1987