In March 2026, social media users posted
The posts featured Noem speaking behind a lectern in front of a row of American flags and saying:
In fact, it reminded me of the quote that is often attributed to George Orwell that states, "People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
Noem correctly pointed out that people have attributed the quote to the famous author of novels such as "1984" and "Animal Farm." People watching Noem's speech in person, on TV or online — for example, users who previously attributed the quote to Orwell in the past — might leave with the belief that the novelist truly wrote the remark, since she did not mention any other famous people.
An example of many users who have posted the quote with Orwell's name. (@TheRabbitHole/X)
In short, Orwell wrote a few thoughts somewhat similar to the remark but did not produce the quote verbatim. The remark, often shared online with the word "peaceably" instead of "peacefully," does not appear in Orwell's works, nor do other records show the author — who died in 1950 and was born with the name Eric Arthur Blair — ever featuring the quote in any manner.
Researching the quote's history
Garson O'Toole (a pseudonym), who writes for the credible Quote Investigator website, previously researched the "rough men" quote in 2011, concluding no evidence showed Orwell originated the comment. O'Toole did, however, make note of other genuine Orwell writings about pacifism, sleep and the necessity of men to guard or engage in violence to allow others to live their lives.
In one example not mentioning sleep, Orwell wrote, in 1945's "Notes on Nationalism," the sentence, "Those who 'abjure' violence can only do so because others are committing violence on their behalf."
Regarding the misattributed quote, Quote Investigator noted the remark sometimes contains "peacefully," "peaceably" or even occasionally reads, "We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."
(@gregorykennedy/X)
O'Toole cited an April 6, 1993, Washington Times article written by Richard Grenier titled, "Perils of Passive Sex." In the article, Grenier reportedly wrote, "As George Orwell pointed out, people sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
O'Toole said of Grenier's reference to Orwell: "There were no quotation marks in this passage because Grenier was not quoting Orwell. Instead, he was presenting a compact statement of the stance that he assigned to Orwell." O'Toole explained how misquotes can originate from paraphrases wrongly republished by online users as direct quotes.
Snopes did not locate a publicly available online record featuring the same 1993 Washington Times article.
Further research about the quote
As noted above, an alternative version of the in-question quote reads, "We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."
Searches of Google Books and Newspapers.com — massive, searchable repositories of books and newspaper archives — did not locate any records of that exact quote in print any earlier than 2003, when The New York Times Magazine inaccurately published the remark with Orwell's name.
A less-shared version of the quote appeared without Orwell's name in a Flint, Michigan, newspaper in 1998, reading, "It's been said that we 'civilized' types can sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf."
Quote Investigator reported in great detail more information about the quote's history, including regarding British writer Rudyard Kipling, former U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Irish-British author John Le Carré.
Similar thoughts about law enforcement officers and military members standing ready to keep the peace appear in writings from centuries past. For example, a passage from 1902 in the Australian newspaper The Advertiser read, "As long as the British navy holds the seas, we might sleep soundly in our beds."