“East and west and north, wherever the battle grew,
As men to a feast we fared, the work of the Will to do.

Bent upon vast beginnings, bidding anarchy cease —
(Had we hacked it to the Pit, we had left it a place of peace!) —

Marching, building, sailing, pillar of cloud or fire,
Sons of the Will, we fought the fight of the Will, our sire.”

— William Ernest Henley

Source: Poems (1898), Rhymes And Rhythms, II

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Nov. 10, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "East and west and north, wherever the battle grew, As men to a feast we fared, the work of the Will to do. Bent upo…" by William Ernest Henley?

William Ernest Henley 29

English poet, critic and editor 1849–1903

Related quotes

“Wherever we look to the east or the west, Britain will always be our friend.”

Tunku Abdul Rahman (1903–1990) Malaysian politician

As quoted in The British Empire in Colour http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0823159/, Episode II, The Wind Of Change

“We now know that bin Laden's terrorists had been planning their outrages for years. The propagation of their mad, bad ideology – decency forbids calling it a religion – had been taking place before our eyes. We were just too blind to see it. In short, the world had never ceased to be dangerous. But the West had ceased to be vigilant. Surely that is the most important lesson of this tragedy, and we must learn it if our civilisation is to survive.”

Margaret Thatcher book Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World

Source: Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World, p. xxv

“The frontiers are not east or west, north or south, but wherever a man fronts a fact”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/7cncd10.txt (1849), Thursday
Context: The frontiers are not east or west, north or south, but wherever a man fronts a fact, though that fact be his neighbor, there is an unsettled wilderness between him and Canada, between him and the setting sun, or, farther still, between him and it.

“An order was given to set up a pillar of pagan heads on the … hill between which and our camp the battle had been fought. (…) About 1000 men, women and children were made prisoner; there as also great slaughter, and a pillar of heads was raised.”

Babur (1483–1530) 1st Mughal Emperor

“Our work for peace must begin within the private world of each one of us. To build for man a world without fear, we must be without fear. To build a world of justice, we must be just.”

Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) Swedish diplomat, economist, and author

UN Press Release SG/360 (22 December 1953)
Context: Our work for peace must begin within the private world of each one of us. To build for man a world without fear, we must be without fear. To build a world of justice, we must be just. And how can we fight for liberty if we are not free in our own minds? How can we ask others to sacrifice if we are not ready to do so?... Only in true surrender to the interest of all can we reach that strength and independence, that unity of purpose, that equity of judgment which are necessary if we are to measure up to our duty to the future, as men of a generation to whom the chance was given to build in time a world of peace.

“The significance of the Falklands War was enormous, both for Britain's self-confidence and for our standing in the world…We had come to be seen by both friends and enemies as a nation which lacked the will and the capability to defend its interests in peace, let alone in war. Victory in the Falklands changed that. Everywhere I went after the war, Britain's name meant something more than it had. The war also had real importance in relations between East and West: years later I was told by a Russian general that the Soviets had been firmly convinced that we would not fight for the Falklands, and that if we did fight we would lose. We proved them wrong on both counts, and they did not forget the fact.”

Margaret Thatcher book The Downing Street Years

The Downing Street Years (1993)

“We have to strengthen ourselves, our will to do battle, our awareness. We have to build a new and better world.”

Hugo Chávez (1954–2013) 48th President of Venezuela

President Hugo Chavez's Speech at the U.N. General Assembly, Wednesday, September 20, 2006

“There is not a moment in our lives that we do not go through a battle. That is the fate of humans in their wanderings in this sad world. We are forced to make choices, who we should side with and how we should act. Like it or not, we have to fight. Because those who refuse to fight will be considered cowards or losers. In the end it's not a matter of losing or winning, but at least we have fought.”

Titon Rahmawan

“We know where they [Iraq's WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat….”

Donald Rumsfeld (1932) U.S. Secretary of Defense

Interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News This Week, March 30, 2003
Context: We know where they [Iraq's WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat.... I would also add, we saw from the air that there were dozens of trucks that went into that facility after the existence of it became public in the press and they moved things out. They dispersed them and took them away. So there may be nothing left. I don't know that. But it's way too soon to know. The exploitation is just starting.

“To maintain the status quo will not do. We have set up a dynamic State, bent upon creation and reform, building and expansion.”

David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973) Israeli politician, Zionist leader, prime minister of Israel

Rebirth and Destiny of Israel (1954), p. 419; a portion of this paragraph has sometimes been misquoted as: "To maintain the status quo will not do. We have to set up a dynamic state bent upon expansion."
Context: Our code must be framed to speed the absorption of immigrants into our economy, culture and society; to fuse the returning tribes into a homogeneous national and cultural unit; to forward our physical and moral healing and the cleansing of our lives from the trivia and dross which gathered upon us in dependence and exile. To maintain the status quo will not do. We have set up a dynamic State, bent upon creation and reform, building and expansion. Laws which lag behind development, merely a digest of experience and the lessons of the past, are useless to us. We need to anticipate the character of the times, discern embryonic forms emergent or renewed, and clear the path for circumstantial change.

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

William Ernest Henley 29

Related quotes

Related topics