“And cities arose and shed their houses in dust, and ever the desert returned again to its own, and covered over and hid the last of all that had troubled its repose.
And still men slew men.
And I came at last to a time when men set their yoke no longer upon beasts but made them beasts of iron.
And after that did men slay men with mists.
Then, because the slaying exceeded their desire, there came peace upon the world that was brought by the hand of the slayer, and men slew men no more.”
The Gods of Pegāna, Of how Imbaun Became High Prophet in Aradec of All the Gods save One
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Lord Dunsany 21
Irish writer and dramatist 1878–1957Related quotes

“Ordinary men died, men of iron were taken prisoner: I only brought back with me men of bronze.”
Statement of 1812, quoted in Napoleon's Cavalry and its Leaders (1978) by David Johnson
Les hommes ordinaires ont succombé, disait-il; les hommes de fer ont été faits prisonniers; je ne ramène avec moi que les hommes de bronze.
Mémoires du colonel Combe sur les campagnes de Russie 1812, de Saxe 1813, de France 1814 et 1815. Paris 1853. p. 184 books.google https://books.google.de/books?id=KhlYAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA184

“But it would be enough that, when riding beasts, they behave like men and not like beasts.”
Part II

“Men are beasts and even beasts don't behave as they do.”
On a Replica of the Parthenon

“A monster, which the Blatant beast men call,
A dreadfull feend of gods and men ydrad.”
Canto 12, stanza 37
The Faerie Queene (1589–1596), Book V