Jump to content

Sword

From Wikiquote
(Redirected from Swordplay)
The arbitrement of swords.
~ Shakespeare

A sword is an edged weapon used primarily for cutting or thrusting. All swords have a blade and a handle, known as the hilt. Blades may be straight, curved, single-edged, double-edged or just pointed; hilts vary considerably in style and length, and may include protective guards for the hand. The sword is symbolic of liberty and strength, and an emblem of military honor which it is said should incite the bearer to a just and generous pursuit of honor and virtue. In the Middle Ages, the sword was often used as a symbol of the word of God. The etymology of the word sword is traced to Old English sweord, from Proto-Germanic *swerdan, from Proto-Indo-European *su̯r̥dhom. This page is for quotes about swords and swordsmanship or their use as metaphors.

Arranged alphabetically by author or source:
A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · Anonymous · See also · External links

A

[edit]
  • The sword gives truer tidings than do scriptures;
       Its edge is what tells zeal from vanity;
    White blades, not the black letters on the page — these
       Reveal misguided doubts for what they are.
    • Abu Tammam, "Ode on the Conquest of Amorium", translated by Julia Bray, "Al-Mu'taşim's 'bridge of toil' and Abū Tammām's Amorium qaşīda", in Studies in Islamic and Middle Eastern Texts and Traditions in Memory of Norman Calder, eds. G. R. Hawting et al. Journal of Semitic Studies Supplement 12 (OUP, 2000) p. 49

B

[edit]
  • High she shook her shining falchion, pliant as the rushen plant,
    Falchion her dwarf-lover forged her, hard and bright as adamant.
  • Arya Stark: Lots of people name their swords.
    The Hound: Lots of cunts.
    • Game of Thrones, Sn. 4, Ep. 1: "Two Swords" (6 April 2014), written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, based on George R. R. Martin's novel series A Song of Ice and Fire (see below)
  • Beneath the rule of men entirely great,
    The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold
    The arch-enchanters wand! — itself a nothing! —
    But taking sorcery from the master-hand
    To paralyse the Cæsars, and to strike
    The loud earth breathless! — Take away the sword —
    States can be saved without it!
  • My sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him that can get it.
  • The recruit must be carefully and sedulously taught when meeting the enemy, even at a trot or canter, to use no force whatever, otherwise his sword will bury itself to the hilt, and the swordsman will either be dragged from his horse, or will be compelled to drop his weapon — if he can.

C

[edit]
Man shall not taste of victory
Till he throws his sword away.
~ G. K. Chesterton
  • Oh, thou dread sword, oft stain'd with heroes' gore,
    Thou awful terror of the prostrate Moor,
    What rage could aim thee at a female breast,
    Unarm'd, by softness and by love possess'd!
  • And al above, depeinted in a tour,
    Saugh I Conquest, sitting in greet honour,
    With the sharpe swerd over his heed,
    Hanginge by a subtil twines threed.
  • For Colan had not bow nor sling,
    On a lonely sword leaned he,
    Like Arthur on Excalibur
    In the battle by the sea.
    To his great gold ear-ring Harold
    Tugged back the feathered tail,
    And swift had sprung the arrow,
    But swifter sprang the Gael.
    Whirling the one sword round his head,
    A great wheel in the sun,
    He sent it splendid through the sky,
    Flying before the shaft could fly —
    It smote Earl Harold over the eye,
    And blood began to run.
  • We discern across the centuries a commanding and versatile intelligence, wielding with equal force the sword of war and of justice; using in defence arms and policy; cherishing religion, learning, and art in the midst of adversity and danger; welding together a nation, and seeking always across the feuds and hatreds of the age a peace which would smile upon the land.
In the midst of this apparatus, Dionysius ordered a bright sword to be let down from the ceiling, suspended by a single horse-hair, so as to hang over the head of that happy man.
  • This tyrant Dionysius showed himself how happy he really was; for once, when Damocles, one of his flatterers, was dilating in conversation on his forces, his wealth, the greatness of his power, the plenty he enjoyed, the grandeur of his royal palaces, and maintaining that no one was ever happier, "Have you an inclination," said he, "Damocles, as this kind of life pleases you, to have a taste of it yourself, and to make a trial of the good fortune that attends me?" And when he said that he should like it extremely, Dionysius ordered him to be laid on a bed of gold with the most beautiful covering, embroidered and wrought with the most exquisite work, and he dressed out a great many sideboards with silver and embossed gold. He then ordered some youths, distinguished for their handsome persons, to wait at his table, and to observe his nod, in order to serve him with what he wanted. There were ointments and garlands; perfumes were burned; tables provided with the most exquisite meats. Damocles thought himself very happy. In the midst of this apparatus, Dionysius ordered a bright sword to be let down from the ceiling, suspended by a single horse-hair, so as to hang over the head of that happy man. After which he neither cast his eye on those handsome waiters, nor on the well-wrought plate; nor touched any of the provisions: presently the garlands fell to pieces. At last he entreated the tyrant to give him leave to go, for that now he had no desire to be happy. Does not Dionysius, then, seem to have declared there can be no happiness for one who is under constant apprehensions?
    • Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes, bk. 5, sec. 21, translated by C. D. Yonge (1877)
  • Folly such as yours,
    Grac'd with a sword, and worthier of a fan,
    Has made what enemies could ne'er have done.

E

[edit]
  • Don Diego: Do you know how to use that thing?
    Alejandro: Yes. The pointy end goes into the other man.
    Don Diego: This is going to take a lot of work.
  • And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword.

G

[edit]
  • L'épée est l'axe du monde.
    • The sword is the axis of the world.
    • Charles de Gaulle, Vers l’armée de métier (1934)
  • So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
  • The sword of Charlemagne the Just
    Is Ferric Oxide, known as rust.
    • Arthur Guiterman, "On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness". Selden Rodman (ed.) A New Anthology of Modern Poetry (New York: Random House, 1938) p. 119

H

[edit]
A properly balanced sword is the most versatile weapon for close quarters ever devised. ~ Robert A. Heinlein
  • I picked up and balanced them all...and found there the blade that suited me the way Excalibur suited Arthur. I've never seen one quite like it so I don't know what to call it...It balanced in the forte less than two inches from the guard, yet the blade was heavy enough to chop bone. It was the sort of sword that feels as if it were an extension of your body.
  • A properly balanced sword is the most versatile weapon for close quarters ever devised. Pistols and guns are all offense, no defense; close on him fast and a man with a gun can't shoot, he has to stop you before you reach him. Close on a man carrying a blade and you'll be spitted like a roast pigeon — unless you have a blade and can use it better than he can.
    A sword never jams, never has to be reloaded, is always ready. Its worst shortcoming is that it takes great skill and patient, loving practice to gain that skill; it can't be taught to raw recruits in weeks, nor even months.
    • Heinlein, Glory Road, Ch. 15
  • There is a go-for-broke tactic, "the target," taught by the best swordmasters, which consists in headlong advance with arm, wrist, and blade in full extension — all attack and no attempt to parry. But it works only by perfect timing when you see your opponent slacken up momentarily. Otherwise it is suicide.
    • Heinlein, Glory Road, Ch. 15
  • I knew in three seconds that I was up against a better swordsman than myself, with a wrist like steel yet supple as a striking snake. He was the only swordsman I have ever met who used prime and octave — used them, I mean, as readily as sixte and carte. Everyone learns them and my own master made me practice them as much as the other six — but most fencers don't use them; they simply may be forced into them, awkwardly and just before losing a point.
    I would lose, not a point, but my life — and I knew, long before the end of that first long phrase, that my life was what I was about to lose, by all odds.
    • Heinlein, Glory Road, Ch. 15
  • Swordplay is an odd thing; you don't really use your mind, it is much too fast for that. Your wrist thinks and tells your feet and body what to do, bypassing your brain.
    • Heinlein, Glory Road, Ch. 15
  • And when they were come near in onset against each other, Atreus' son missed, and his spear was turned aside, but Iphidamas smote him on the girdle, below the corslet, and himself pressed on, trusting to his heavy hand, but pierced not the gleaming girdle, for long ere that the point struck on the silver, and was bent like lead. Then wide-ruling Agamemnon caught the spear with his hand and drew it toward him furiously, like a lion, and snatched it out of the hand of Iphidamas, and smote his neck with the sword, and unstrung his limbs. So even there he fell, and slept a sleep of bronze most piteously.
    • Homer, Iliad, bk. 11, translated by Andrew Lang, Walter Leaf and Ernest Myers (1892)
  • Helenus then struck Deipyrus with a great Thracian sword, hitting him on the temple in close combat and tearing the helmet from his head; the helmet fell to the ground, and one of those who were fighting on the Achaean side took charge of it as it rolled at his feet, but the eyes of Deipyrus were closed in the darkness of death.
    • Iliad, bk. 13, translated by Samuel Butler (1898)
  • When they had donned their bronze armour they marched on with Neptune at their head. In his strong hand he grasped his terrible sword, keen of edge and flashing like lightning; woe to him who comes across it in the day of battle; all men quake for fear and keep away from it.
    • Iliad, bk. 14, translated by Samuel Butler
  • Peneleos and Lycon now met in close fight, for they had missed each other with their spears. They had both thrown without effect, so now they drew their swords. Lycon struck the plumed crest of Peneleos’ helmet but his sword broke at the hilt, while Peneleos smote Lycon on the neck under the ear. The blade sank so deep that the head was held on by nothing but the skin, and there was no more life left in him.
    • Iliad, bk. 16, translated by Samuel Butler
  • When Tros [the son of Alastor] laid hold of his knees and sought a hearing for his prayers, Achilles drove his sword into his liver, and the liver came rolling out, while his bosom was all covered with the black blood that welled from the wound.
    • Iliad, bk. 20, translated by Samuel Butler
  • Next in order the bronze point of his spear wounded Deucalion in the fore-arm where the sinews of the elbow are united, whereon he waited Achilles’ onset with his arm hanging down and death staring him in the face. Achilles cut his head off with a blow from his sword and flung it helmet and all away from him, and the marrow came oozing out of his backbone as he lay.
    • Iliad, bk. 20, translated by Samuel Butler
  • Forthwith the hero left his spear upon the bank, leaning it against a tamarisk bush, and plunged into the river like a god, armed with his sword only. Fell was his purpose as he hewed the Trojans down on every side. Their dying groans rose hideous as the sword smote them, and the river ran red with blood.
    • Iliad, bk. 21, translated by Samuel Butler
  • [Lycaon] loosed his hold of the spear, and held out both hands before him; but Achilles drew his keen blade, and struck him by the collar-bone on his neck; he plunged his two-edged sword into him to the very hilt, whereon he lay at full length on the ground, with the dark blood welling from him till the earth was soaked.
    • Iliad, bk. 21, translated by Samuel Butler
  • Achilles then gave the great sword to the son of Tydeus, with its scabbard, and the leathern belt with which to hang it.
    • Iliad, bk. 23, translated by Samuel Butler
  • If men are to meet steel with steel, they should be adequately armed. Long spears and short swords to meet a charge of long swords. If you don't believe that, read the chronicles of Rome and Macedonia.
  • Wits and swords are as straws against the wisdom of the Darkness.
  • The subtle tongue, the sophist guile, they fail when the broadswords sing.
    • Robert E. Howard, "The Phoenix on the Sword", Ch. 5

I

[edit]
They shall beat their swords into ploughshares. ~ Isaiah
  • And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

J

[edit]
Reason will not decide at last; the sword will decide. ~ Robinson Jeffers
  • Reason will not decide at last; the sword will decide.
    The sword: an obsolete instrument of bronze or steel,
    formerly used to kill men, but here
    In the sense of a symbol.

K

[edit]
  • The children of Israel have...slain thy prophets with the sword.
  • "I believe in things I never used to. I think someone is trying to find me — has found me. And is calling. Who it is I don't know. What they want I don't know. But a little while ago I found out one more thing — this sword."
    I picked the sword up from the table.
    "It isn't what I want," I went on, "But sometimes, when my mind is — abstract, something from outside floats into it. Like the need for a sword. And not any sword — just one. I don't know what the sword looks like, but I'd know if I held it in my hand." I laughed a little. "And if I drew it a few inches from the sheath, I could put out that fire up there as if I'd blown on it like a candleflame. And if I drew the sword all the way out — the world would come to an end!"

L

[edit]
What does it mean to be Samurai? ... And to master the way of the sword.
  • What does it mean to be Samurai? To devote yourself utterly to a set of moral principles. To seek a stillness of your mind. And to master the way of the sword.
  • Ignorantque datos, ne quisquam seruiat, enses.
    • Men are ignorant that the purpose of the sword is to save every man from slavery.
    • Lucan, Pharsalia, bk. 4, l. 579, translated by J. D. Duff (1928)
  • Your fathers lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. An elegant weapon for a more civilized age.
  • [H]e who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.

M

[edit]
  • Through teeth and skull and helmet
       So fierce a thrust he sped,
    The good sword stood a handbreadth out
       Behind the Tuscan’s head.
  • Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise the King born of all England.
  • In the midst of the lake Arthur was 'ware of an arm clothed in white samite, that held a fair sword in that hand.
    • Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, bk. 1, ch. 25
  • A sword, and not a sceptre, fits Æneas.
    • Marlowe, Dido, Queen of Carthage (c. 1587–'93) act 4, sc. 4 (Æneas)
  • Our swords shall play the orators for us.
    • Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great (1587–'88) pt. 1, act 1, sc. 2 (Techelles)
  • Our conquering swords shall marshal us the way
    We use to march upon the slaughter'd foe.
    • Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great, pt. 1, act 3, sc. 3 (Tamburlaine)
  •    Let us glut our swords,
    That thirst to drink the feeble Persians' blood.
    • Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great, pt. 1, act 3, sc. 3 (Bajazeth)
  • My sword hath sent millions of Turks to hell.
    • Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great, pt. 2, act 5, sc. 1 (Tamburlaine)
  • She stood on the end of the dock, pale and goosefleshed and shivering in the fog. In her hand, Needle seemed to whisper to her. Stick them with the pointy end, it said, and, don't tell Sansa! Mikken's mark was on the blade. It's just a sword. If she needed a sword, there were a hundred under the temple. Needle was too small to be a proper sword, it was hardly more than a toy. She'd been a stupid little girl when Jon had it made for her. "It's just a sword," she said, aloud this time...
    ...but it wasn't.
    Needle was Robb and Bran and Rickon, her mother and her father, even Sansa. Needle was Winterfell's grey walls, and the laughter of its people. Needle was the summer snows, Old Nan's stories, the heart tree with its red leaves and scary face, the warm earthy smell of the glass gar-dens, the sound of the north wind rattling the shutters of her room. Needle was Jon Snow's smile.
  • Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
  • Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
    • Jesus, in Matthew 26:52 (KJV)
  • Fire and wind come from the sky, from the gods of the sky, but Crom is your god, Crom, and he lives in the Earth. Once giants lived in the Earth, Conan, and in the darkness of chaos they fooled Crom, and they took from him the enigma of steel. Crom was angered, and the Earth shook, and fire and wind struck down these giants, and threw their bodies into the waters. But in their rage, the gods forgot the secret of steel, and left it on the battlefield. We, who found it, are just men: not gods, not giants, just men. And the secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery. You must learn its riddle, Conan, you must learn its discipline. For no one, no one in this world can you trust. Not men, not women, not beasts... This you can trust.
    • Conan's father to his son, in Conan the Barbarian (1982 film), written by John Milius and Oliver Stone
  • Steel isn't strong boy, flesh is stronger! ... What is steel, compared to the hand that wields it?
    • Thulsa Doom, in Conan the Barbarian
  • 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.
    • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667) bk. 10 · (1674) bk. 12
  • 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.
    • Bernard Montgomery, on "going over the top" in the First World War, quoted in Brian Montgomery, A Field Marshal in the Family (1973)
  • 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!"
    • Michael Moorcock, Stormbringer (1965) Ch. 6
  • 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.
    • Book of Mormon, II Nephi 5:14
  • 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.
    • Book of Mormon, Alma 24:12
  • 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.
    • Book of Mormon, Alma 24:16
  • 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.
    • Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings (1645), translated by Victor Harris (Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press, 1974) p. 65
  • The sword is the key of heaven and hell.
    • Attributed to Muhammad, in J. Rees, of Rodborough, The Substance of a Sermon, Preached at Portland Chapel, Cheltenham, on Wednesday, March 26, 1817 (Stroud: F. Vigurs, 1817) p. 24. Extracts from the Cheltenham Chronicle (3 April 1817)

N

[edit]
  • 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.
    • Matrakçı Nasuh, Tuhfat al-ghuzat ('The Treatise Dedicated to the Holy Warriors') fol. 16b, translated by Hamilton Parker Cook, "Poetry of the Sword", www.arms-n-armor.com (11 March 2022)

P

[edit]
  • 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."
    • Plutarch, Life of Julius Caesar, 29, translated by Bernadotte Perrin
  • 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.
  • 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.
    • Psalm 45:3 (KJV)

R

[edit]
  • 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."

S

[edit]
  • Quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit: occidentis telum est.
    • A sword by itself does not slay; it is merely the weapon used by the slayer.
    • Seneca the Younger, Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, no. 87, translated by Richard M. Gummere, vol. 2 (1920)
  •    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.
    • Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, act 3, sc. 13 (Antony to Cleopatra)
  • O, thy vile lady!
    She has robbed me of my sword.
    • Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, act 3, sc. 14 (Antony to Mardian)
  •    I, that with my sword
    Quartered the world.
    • Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, act 3, sc. 14 (Antony to Eros)
  • A gallant curtal-axe upon my thigh.
  • We measured swords and parted.
    • Shakespeare, As You Like It, act 1, sc. 3 (Rosalind)
  •    His sword, Death’s stamp,
    Where it did mark, it took.
    • Shakespeare, Coriolanus (c. 1608) act 2, sc. 2 (Cominius)
  •    He has been bred i’ th’ wars
    Since he could draw a sword.
    • Shakespeare, Coriolanus, act 3, sc. 1 (Menenius)
  •    I would my son
    Were in Arabia and thy tribe before him,
    His good sword in his hand.
    • Shakespeare, Coriolanus, act 4, sc. 2 (Volumnia to Sicinius)
  • Died with their swords in hand.
    • Shakespeare, Cymbeline (c. 1611) act 1, sc. 1 (I Gentleman)
  • The arbitrement of swords.
    • Shakespeare, Cymbeline, act 1, sc. 4 (Frenchman) · Henry V, act 4, sc. 1 (King Henry)
  • Out, sword, and to a sore purpose!
    • Shakespeare, Cymbeline, act 4, sc. 1 (Cloten)
  • With his own sword,
    Which he did wave against my throat, I have ta’en
    His head from him.
    • Shakespeare, Cymbeline, act 4, sc. 2 (Guiderius)
  • Swear by my sword.
    • Shakespeare, Hamlet (c. 1599–1601) act 1, sc. 5 (Hamlet)
  • Many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose-quills.
    • Shakespeare, Hamlet, act 2, sc. 2 (Rosencrantz)
  • Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent.
    • Shakespeare, Hamlet, act 3, sc. 3 (Hamlet)
  • My sword hacked like a handsaw.
  •    Full bravely hast thou flesh’d
    Thy maiden sword.
    • Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, act 5, sc. 4 (Prince)
  • I would make him eat a piece of my sword.
    • Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, act 5, sc. 4 (Falstaff)
  • I knew him a good backsword man.
  • By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I’ll kill him; by this sword, I will.
    • Shakespeare, Henry V (c. 1599) act 2, sc. 1 (Bardolph)
  • And sheath’d their swords for lack of argument.
    • Shakespeare, Henry V, act 3, sc. 1 (King Henry)
  • Scarce blood enough in all their sickly veins
    To give each naked curtle-axe a stain,
    That our French gallants shall today draw out,
    And sheathe for lack of sport.
    • Shakespeare, Henry V, act 4, sc. 2 (Constable)
  •    Here is my keen-edg’d sword,
    Deck’d with five flower-de-luces on each side,
    The which at Touraine, in Saint Katharine’s churchyard,
    Out of a great deal of old iron I chose forth.
  • My sword should shed hot blood, mine eyes no tears.
  • Never yet did base dishonour blur our name
    But with our sword we wiped away the blot.
    • Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, act 4, sc. 1 (Whitmore)
  • Come, and get thee a sword, though made of a lath.
    • Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, act 4, sc. 2 (Bevis)
  • I’ll make thee eat iron like an ostrich, and swallow my sword like a great pin.
    • Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, act 4, sc. 10 (Cade to Iden)
  • Let this my sword report what speech forbears.
    • Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, act 4, sc. 10 (Iden to Cade)
  • Is’t Cade that I have slain, that monstrous traitor?
    Sword, I will hallow thee for this thy deed,
    And hang thee o’er my tomb when I am dead.
    Ne’er shall this blood be wipèd from thy point,
    But thou shalt wear it as a herald’s coat
    To emblaze the honour that thy master got.
    • Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, act 4, sc. 10 (Iden)
  • O, now doth Death line his dead chaps with steel;
    The swords of soldiers are his teeth, his fangs.
    • Shakespeare, King John (c. 1595) act 2, sc. 1 (Bastard)
My good biting falchion.
  •    The sword is out
    That must destroy thee.
    • Shakespeare, King Lear (1605–'06) act 4, sc. 6 (Oswald)
  • I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion
    I would have made them skip.
    • Shakespeare, King Lear, act 5, sc. 3 (Lear)
  • I will not fight with a pole, like a northern man. I’ll slash, I’ll do it by the sword.
  • Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.
    • Shakespeare, Othello (c. 1603) act 1, sc. 2 (Othello)
  • It is a sword of Spain, the ice-brook’s temper.
    • Shakespeare, Othello, act 5, sc. 2 (Othello)
  • Our strong arms be our conscience, swords our law.
    • Shakespeare, Richard III (c. 1592–'94) act 5, sc. 3 (King Richard)
  • Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember thy swashing blow.
  • What mean these masterless and gory swords
    To lie discolour’d by this place of peace?
    • Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, act 5, sc. 3 (Friar Lawrence)
  • An old rusty sword ta’en out of the town armoury, with a broken hilt, and chapeless; with two broken points.
  • I found a young Marine on guard among the blasted pillboxes at the base of the volcano. He had a Japanese samurai sword at his belt. "We flushed a Jap officer out of a cave over there," he told me, indicating a fire-blackened hole in the face of the cliff where a flame thrower had been used. "He came out waving his sword and we shot him. There were three of us and when we took his sword we couldn't decide which one had killed him and whose sword it was. So we decided to share." Drawing the blade from the scabbard, he added proudly, "It's my turn to wear it today, sir."
I never saw any one like him. He is steel! He would go through you like a sword! ~ Bram Stoker
  • Murder is the only art a swordsman may practice. No ornamental words can change that. You want to protect people with murder? You’ll slaughter legions so that a few may live. Many years, long before you were born, my sword was tearing asunder the lives of men. Yes, all of those men were evil, but they were human beings first and foremost, Kenshin. The world you ardently desire to enter will not know what to do with you. It will deceive you into believing that you are saving lives even as you destroy them. You will accept these lies all the while, your hands will be stained with the worst of offenses.
  • They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.
  • I never saw any one like him. He is steel! He would go through you like a sword!
  • The dint of swords from kisses seemèd strange.

T

[edit]
  • I've done what I swore an oath to God twenty-eight years ago to never do again. I've created "something that kills people". And in that purpose, I was a success. I've done this because, philosophically, I'm sympathetic to your aim. I can tell you, with no ego, this is my finest sword. If, on your journey, should you encounter God, God will be cut.
  • Silly Caucasian girl likes to play with samurai swords. You might not be able to fight like a samurai, but you can at least die like a samurai.
    • O-Ren to the Bride, in Kill Bill: Volume 1
  • That really was a Hattori Hanzo sword.
    • O-Ren, in Kill Bill: Volume 1
  • Bill: You hocked a Hattori Hanzo sword!
    Budd: Yeah.
    Bill: It was priceless.
    Budd: Well not in El Paso, it ain't. In El Paso, I got me $250 for it.
  • There likewise I beheld Excalibur
    Before him at his crowning borne, the sword
    That rose from out the bosom of the lake.
    [...]
    On one side,
    Graven in the oldest tongue of all this world,
    'Take me,' but turn the blade and ye shall see,
    And written in the speech ye speak yourself,
    'Cast me away!' And sad was Arthur’s face
    Taking it, but old Merlin counselled him,
    'Take thou and strike! the time to cast away
    Is yet far-off.' So this great brand the king
    Took, and by this will beat his foemen down.
  • What record, or what relic of my lord
    Should be to aftertime, but empty breath
    And rumours of a doubt? But were this kept,
    Stored in some treasure-house of mighty kings,
    Some one might show it at a joust of arms,
    Saying, 'King Arthur’s sword, Excalibur,
    Wrought by the lonely maiden of the Lake.
    Nine years she wrought it, sitting in the deeps
    Upon the hidden bases of the hills.'
    • Alfred Tennyson, Idylls of the King (1869) "The Passing of Arthur"
  • So flashed and fell the brand Excalibur:
    But ere he dipt the surface, rose an arm
    Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
    And caught him by the hilt, and brandished him
    Three times, and drew him under in the mere.
    • Alfred Tennyson, Idylls of the King (1869) "The Passing of Arthur"
  • The man held his sword with his right hand reversed, in the style known as, "the sword which cuts and stabs as one".
    • Katsumi Toda, Revenge of the Shogun's Ninja (London: Dragon Books, 1984) ch. 10, p. 49
  • ‘Old knives are long enough as swords for hobbit-people,’ he said. ‘Sharp blades are good to have, if Shire-folk go walking, east, south, or far away into dark and danger.’
  • ‘Gil-galad died, and Elendil fell, and Narsil broke beneath him; but Sauron himself was overthrown, and Isildur cut the Ring from his hand with the hilt-shard of his father’s sword, and took it for his own.’
    • Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Council of Elrond (Elrond)
  • ‘Mayhap the Sword-that-was-Broken may still stem the tide – if the hand that wields it has inherited not an heirloom only, but the sinews of the Kings of Men.’
    • Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Council of Elrond (Boromir)
Andúril, Flame of the West.
  • The Sword of Elendil was forged anew by Elvish smiths, and on its blade was traced a device of seven stars set between the crescent Moon and the rayed Sun, and about them was written many runes; for Aragorn son of Arathorn was going to war upon the marches of Mordor. Very bright was that sword when it was made whole again; the light of the sun shone redly in it, and the light of the moon shone cold, and its edge was hard and keen. And Aragorn gave it a new name and called it Andúril, Flame of the West.
    • Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Ring Goes South
  • Boromir had a long sword, in fashion like Andúril but of less lineage.
    • Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Ring Goes South
  • Gandalf bore his staff, but girt at his side was the elven-sword Glamdring, the mate of Orcrist that lay now upon the breast of Thorin under the Lonely Mountain.
    • Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Ring Goes South
  • No gleam came from the blades of Sting or of Glamdring; and that was some comfort, for being the work of Elvish smiths in the Elder Days these swords shone with a cold light, if any Orcs were near at hand.
    • Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, A Journey in the Dark
  • Some of the swords were crooked: orc-scimitars with blackened blades.
    • Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Bridge of Khazad-dûm
  • ‘Swords are no more use here. Go!’
    • Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Bridge of Khazad-dûm (Gandalf)
  • From out of the shadow a red sword leaped flaming.
    Glamdring glittered white in answer.
    • Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Bridge of Khazad-dûm
  • ‘What other fairer way would you desire?’ said Aragorn.
    ‘A plain road, though it led through a hedge of swords,’ said Boromir.
    • Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, Lothlórien
  • They were armed with short broad-bladed swords, not with the curved scimitars usual with Orcs.
  • ‘There is work for the Sword to do.’
    • Tolkien, The Two Towers, The Riders of Rohan (Éomer)
  • ‘Return with what speed you may, and let our swords hereafter shine together!’
    • Tolkien, The Two Towers, The Riders of Rohan (Éomer)
  • ‘Your fingers would remember their old strength better, if they grasped a sword-hilt.’
    • Tolkien, The Two Towers, The King of the Golden Hall (Gandalf to Théoden)
  • Háma knelt and presented to Théoden a long sword in a scabbard clasped with gold and set with green gems.
    ‘Here, lord, is Herugrim, your ancient blade,’ he said. ‘It was found in his chest. Loth was he to render up the keys. Many other things are there which men have missed.’
    • Tolkien, The Two Towers, The King of the Golden Hall
  • ‘Come!’ said Aragorn. ‘This is the hour when we draw swords together!’
    • Tolkien, The Two Towers, Helm’s Deep
  • A sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
  • The drawing of the scimitars of the Southrons was like a glitter of stars.
    • Tolkien, The Return of the King, The Battle of the Pelennor Fields

W

[edit]

Y

[edit]
  • It is easy to kill someone with a slash of a sword. It is hard to be impossible for others to cut down.
    • Yagyū Munenori, as quoted in Joseph Lumpkin, Behold the Second Horseman (2005), p. 53
  • 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.
    • Yagyū Munenori, as quoted in Thomas Cleary, Soul of the Samurai (2005), p. 28
  • Conquering evil, not the opponent, is the essence of swordsmanship.
    • Yagyū Munenori, as quoted in Joseph Lumpkin, Behold the Second Horseman (2005), p. 44

Anonymous

[edit]
  • 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.
    • An "old adage", in Charles W. Sasser, OSS Commando: Hitler's A-Bomb (2008)
  • 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."
    • Agni Purana, ch. 245, translated by M. N. Dutt, vol. 3 (1904)
[edit]
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia has an article about:
Wiktionary
Wiktionary
Look up sword in Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Retrieved from "https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Sword&oldid=3863947"