“We are the Choice of the Will: God, when He gave the word
That called us into line, set in our hand a sword;
Set us a sword to wield none else could lift and draw,
And bade us forth to the sound of the trumpet of the Law.”
Source: Poems (1898), Rhymes And Rhythms, II
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
William Ernest Henley 29
English poet, critic and editor 1849–1903Related quotes
Source: Civil Government : Its Origin, Mission, and Destiny (1889), p. 87
Context: It is the duty of the Christian to submit to the human government in its office and work and to seek its destruction only by spreading the religion of Christ and so converting men from service to the earthly government to service to the heavenly one, and so, too, by removing the necessity for its existence and work. No violence, no sword, no bitterness or wrath can he use. The spread of the peaceful principles of the Savior, will draw men out of the kingdoms of earth into the kingdom of God.
“It isn’t in the way we wield a sword, but in the dialogue we hold that could avoid a war.”
Manuscript Found in Accra (2012), About Elegance
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 264.
From Evelyn Underhill Ruysbroeck (1915), p. 182 & 183
The Sparkling Stone (c. 1340)
“We are told by the word of the Gospel that in this His fold there are two swords—a spiritual, namely, and a temporal. […] Both swords, the spiritual and the material, therefore, are in the power of the Church; the one, indeed, to be wielded for the Church, the other by the Church; the one by the hand of the priest, the other by the hand of kings and knights, but at the will and sufferance of the priest.”
In hac ejusque potestate duos esse gladios, spiritualem videlicet et temporalem, evangelicis dictis instruimur. […] Uterque ergo est in potestate ecclesiae, spiritualis scilicet gladius et materialis. Sed is quidem pro ecclesia, ille vero ab ecclesia exercendus, ille sacerdotis, is manu regum et militum, sed ad nutum et patientiam sacerdotis.
Unam sanctam (1302)
“Those who do not fear the sword they wield have no right to wield a sword at all.
~Shuhei Hisagi”
Variant: He who does not fear the sword he holds is not worthy of holding a sword.
-Hisagi Shuuhei
“Our swords shall play the orators for us.”
Techelles, Act I, scene ii, line 132
Tamburlaine (c. 1588)
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.