This statement comes from Plutarch’s record of Cato the Elder, who reportedly opined that “he did not like a soldier who moved his hands in marching, and his feet in fighting, and who snored louder in bed than he shouted in battle.” (Plutarch’s Lives, 247.)

Plutarch’s Lives, Translated from the Original Greek: With Notes, Critical and Historical: and a Life of Plutarch. Translated by John Langhorne and William Langhorne. Baltimore: W. C. William and Joseph Neal, 1831.

JS may have had in mind his arrest by the Missouri militia; he believed he had been betrayed by some of his friends who had led him to believe that he was simply going to negotiate an end to the conflict between the Latter-day Saints and other Missourians. Several months after that arrest, JS spoke on loyalty and the importance of true friendship, stating, “Whatever you do do not betray you Friend.” He expressed a similar sentiment in a letter to William W. Phelps when the latter asked to rejoin the church following his excommunication for conduct related to the conflict with the Missourians. (Letter to Emma Smith, 4 Nov. 1838; Woodruff, Journal, 2 July 1839, underlining in original; Letter to William W. Phelps, 22 July 1840.)

Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.