“Those who do not fear the sword they wield have no right to wield a sword at all.
~Shuhei Hisagi”
Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist
Variant: He who does not fear the sword he holds is not worthy of holding a sword.
-Hisagi Shuuhei
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter I, Introduction, p. 3
“Those who do not fear the sword they wield have no right to wield a sword at all.
~Shuhei Hisagi”
Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist
Variant: He who does not fear the sword he holds is not worthy of holding a sword.
-Hisagi Shuuhei
Miyamoto Musashi (1584–1645) Japanese martial artist, writer, artist
Go Rin No Sho (1645), The Water Book
Context: Knowing the Way of the long sword means we can wield with two fingers the sword that we usually carry. If we know the path of the sword well, we can wield it easily.
If you try to wield the long sword quickly you will mistake the Way. To wield the long sword well you must wield it calmly. If you try to wield it quickly, like a folding fan or a short sword, you will err by using "short sword chopping". You cannot cut a man with a long sword using this method.
Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist
Source: Bleach, Volume 05
“There is no fast way of wielding the long sword.”
Miyamoto Musashi (1584–1645) Japanese martial artist, writer, artist
Go Rin No Sho (1645), The Ground Book
Context: There is no fast way of wielding the long sword. The long sword should be wielded broadly, and the companion sword closely. This is the first thing to realise.
According to this Ichi school, you can win with a long weapon, and yet you can also win with a short weapon. In short, the Way of the Ichi school is the spirit of winning, whatever the weapon and whatever its size.
“The only thing greater than the power of the mind is the courage of the heart”
John Nash (1928–2015) American mathematician and Nobel Prize laureate
“New eras don't come about because of swords, they're created by the people who wield them.”
Nobuhiro Watsuki (1970) Japanese manga artist
Samuel R. Delany book The Jewels of Aptor
Source: The Jewels of Aptor (1962), Chapter X (p. 133)
Context: A lesson which history should have taught us thousands of years ago was finally driven home. No man can wield absolute power over other men and still retain his own mind. For no matter how good his intentions are when he takes up the power, his alternate reason is that freedom, the freedom of other people and ultimately his own, terrifies him. Only a man afraid of freedom would want this power, who could conceive of wielding it. And that fear of freedom will turn him into a slave of this power.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, The Quest for Peace and Justice (1964)
Context: Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.
I believe in this method because I think it is the only way to reestablish a broken community. It is the method which seeks to implement the just law by appealing to the conscience of the great decent majority who through blindness, fear, pride, and irrationality have allowed their consciences to sleep.