Sword

"It is easy to kill someone with a slash of a sword. It is hard to be impossible for others to cut down."

"Throwing down your own sword is also an art of war. If you have attained mastery of swordlessness, you will never lack for a sword. The opponent's sword is your sword. This is acting at the vanguard of the moment."

"Conquering evil, not the opponent, is the essence of swordsmanship."

"One sword keeps another in the scabbard."

"Those who beat their swords into ploughshares ended up plowing for those who didn’t — or they ended up extinct."

"Non mi snudare senza ragione. Non m'impugnare senza valore."

"The god Brahman pondered over the obstructions thrown by the demon in the way of performing religious sacrifices, and behold, the god of fire appeared before him in the shape of a man of gigantic stature. The god bowed down to Brahman and all the gods humbled themselves before him as well. The god Hari took the sword Nandaka from the hands of the Fire-god, and the whole heaven was jubilant over the gift. The god Hari gradually unsheathed it out of its scabbard, and the sword, blue in colour, and with its hilt of gold, came into view. Thereupon the demon made himself endowed with a hundred hands by magic, and, mace in hand, attacked the gods in battle. The members of the demon's body, severed with the sword (Nandaka) of the god Hari, fell down on the earth and were converted into iron with the touch of that celestial weapon. The god Hari blessed those severed and hallowed limbs of the demon as, "Be you converted into weapons on earth.""

"The brandished sword of God before them blazed, Fierce as a comet; which with torrid heat, And vapour as the Libyan air adust, Began to parch that temperate clime."

"I prefer a shiny weapon. I am of a kind, philanthropic disposition, and as firearms demand, even with the most skillful shot, to aim at the heart, allowing for misses, a man is a murderer at the beginning. Humanity may not then be displayed. On the contrary, with the shiny weapon I would only attempt to clip the wings of my honored opponent."

"Waving my sword ran forward in front of my platoon, but unfortunately I had only gone six paces when I tripped over my scabbard, the sword fell from my hand (I hadn't wound that word strap round my wrist in the approved fashion!) and I fell flat on my face on very hard ground. By the time I had picked myself up and rushed after my men I found that most of them had been killed."

"Greatest of these heroes was a doom-driven adventurer who bore a crooning rune blade that he loathed."

"Farewell, friend. I was a thousand times more evil than thou!"

"And I beheld his sword, and I drew it forth from the sheath thereof; and the hilt thereof was of pure gold, and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine, and I saw that the blade thereof was of the most precious steel."

"And I, Nephi, did take the sword of Laban, and after the manner of it did make many swords, lest by any means the people who were now called Lamanites should come upon us and destroy us."

"Now, my best beloved brethren, since God hath taken away our stains, and our swords have become bright, then let us stain our swords no more with the blood of our brethren."

"Behold, we will hide away our swords, yea, even we will bury them deep in the earth, that they may be kept bright, as a testimony that we have never used them, at the last day."

"You can't expect to wield supreme power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!"

"You can know how to win through strategy with the long sword, but it cannot be clearly explained in writing. You must practise diligently in order to understand how to win."

"The sword is the key of heaven and hell."

"It is the sword that foils all enemies. The sword upsets foes. Like a falcon, it rips apart ranks of troops. Whatever I say of the sword, in sum: it is the Sultan of weapons. Whatever is said about other weapons (like the spear) is vain boasting. For the roses of the sword are the shield of Heaven's Garden. The sword's hyacinths descend from Paradise's lilies."

"Caesar...passed across the territory of the Lingones, wishing to reach the country of the Sequani, who were friends, and stood as a bulwark between Italy and the rest of Gaul. There the enemy fell upon him and surrounded him with many tens of thousands, so that he essayed to fight a decisive battle. In the main he got the best of the struggle, and after a long time and much slaughter over­powered the Barbarians; but it appears that at first he met with some reverse, and the Arverni show a short-sword (ξιφίδιον) hanging in a temple, which they say was captured from Caesar. When Caesar himself saw it, at a later time, he smiled, and though his friends urged him to have it taken down, he would not permit it, considering it sacred."

"We are told that one of the centurions sent to Rome by Caesar, as he stood in front of the senate house and learned that the senate would not give Caesar an extension of his term of command, slapped the handle of his sword and said: "But this will give it.""

"When MacArthur put out an order forbidding confiscation of Japanese officers' swords, Halsey was indignant. The next time he saw the general he protested, saying he considered the order unwise for two reasons. First, the sword, a symbol of militarism, would keep its spirit alive. He gave the example of Germany, where he had served as an attaché shortly after World War I. In many homes there he had seen a bust of Napoleon with a sword hung above it. Such displays, he was convinced, helped preserve in Germany the spirit of militarism that exploded into World War II. "That's true," said MacArthur, "but I was thinking of Appomattox, when Grant allowed Lee's troops to keep their side arms." "That brings me my second point," Halsey replied. "Grant was dealing with an honorable foe. We are not." The general pondered a few moments, pacing his office. "You're right!" he exclaimed. "You're right! I'll revoke the order." He did."

"It seemed that the land would be torn by war, Or saved by a miracle alone — And that miracle appeared in London town: The Sword in the Stone. And below the hilt, in letters of gold, were written these words: "Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil is rightwise King born of England." Though many tried for the Sword with all their strength, none could move the Sword, nor stir it. So the miracle had not worked, and England was still without a King. And, in time, the marvelous Sword was forgotten. This was a Dark Age, without law and without order. Men lived in fear of one another, for the strong preyed upon the weak."

"The pen is mightier than the sword...if the sword is very short, and the pen is very sharp."

"Her opponents started off grinning at the temerity of a slight young girl attacking them, and then rapidly passed through various stages of puzzlement, doubt, concern, and abject gibbering terror as they apparently became the center of a flashing, tightening circle of steel."

"Greebo's technique was unscientific and wouldn't have stood a chance against any decent swordmanship, but on his side was the fact that it is almost impossible to develop decent swordmanship when you seem to have run into a food mixer that is biting your ear off."

"Deliver my soul from the sword."

"Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty."

"During one phase of the Dnieper campaign, after his troops had surrounded several German divisions, Koniev demanded their immediate surrender. When the Germans refused he ordered his saber-wielding Cossacks to attack. "We let the Cossacks cut for as long as they wished," he told Milovan Djilas, head of the Yugoslav Military Mission to Moscow, in 1944. "They even hacked off the hands of those who raised them to surrender.""

"Quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit: occidentis telum est."

"Worthy fellows, and like to prove most sinewy sword-men."

"I drunk him to his bed, Then put my tires and mantles on him, whilst I wore his sword Philippan."

"I and my sword will earn our chronicle."

"O, thy vile lady! She has robbed me of my sword."

"I, that with my sword Quartered the world."

"A gallant curtal-axe upon my thigh."

"We measured swords and parted."

"His sword, Death’s stamp, Where it did mark, it took."

"He has been bred i’ th’ wars Since he could draw a sword."

"I would my son Were in Arabia and thy tribe before him, His good sword in his hand."

"Died with their swords in hand."

"The arbitrement of swords."

"Out, sword, and to a sore purpose!"

"With his own sword, Which he did wave against my throat, I have ta’en His head from him."

"Swear by my sword."

"Many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose-quills."

"Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent."

"My sword hacked like a handsaw."

"Full bravely hast thou flesh’d Thy maiden sword."