Gibson Query

William Gibson has a query:

“People sleep peace­fully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”

Often this is given as “Good people…”

I have been unable to source this back to a specific piece of [George Orwell]‘s prose. Have encountered the opinion that it is not an actual GO quotation.

Can anyone help? Thanks.

I read the above and thought of this:

You don’t want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty… We use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending some­thing. You use ‘em as a punch­line. I have neither the time nor the inclin­a­tion to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then ques­tions the manner in which I provide it! I’d rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Oth­er­wise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you’re entitled to!

I’ll let you guess (or google) the source.

There is a short dis­cus­sion of the quote on The Chestnut Tree Cafe, a site “devoted to exploring the life, times and work of the English novelist and journ­alist Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell)”:

Did George Orwell ever say: “People sleep peace­ably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf?” Or: “We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us?”

Not exactly. But he did make comments that were along similar lines. In his essay on Rudyard Kipling (1942), Orwell wrote: “[Kipling] sees clearly that men can only be highly civ­il­ized while other men, inev­it­ably less civ­il­ised, are there to guard and feed them.” (Thanks to Keith Ammann for this). And in his ‘Notes on Nation­alism’ (1945) he wrote: “Those who “abjure” violence can only do so because others are com­mit­ting violence on their behalf.” (Thanks to Parbety). Where the rough men crept in is anyone’s guess.

Does anyone reading this know where “rough men” crept in?