“Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. The saying goes you live by the sword you shall die by the sword…It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.”

— William Shakespeare

This statement by an unknown author has also been wrongly attributed to Julius Caesar, as well as to Shakespeare's play on his assassination and its aftermath, but there are no records of it prior to late 2000. It has been debunked at Snopes.com http://www.snopes.com/quotes/caesar.htm
Misattributed

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 28, 2023. History

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William Shakespeare 699

English playwright and poet 1564–1616

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“Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.”

Julius Caesar (-100–-44 BC) Roman politician and general

This statement by an unknown author has also been wrongly attributed to William Shakespeare, but there are no records of it prior to late 2001. It has been debunked at Snopes.com http://www.snopes.com/quotes/caesar.htm
Misattributed

“In politics, you live by the sword, and you die by the sword.”

Nick Clegg (1967) British politician

At the election count in 2017 at Sheffield Hallam, where he lost his seat in the House of Commons. https://news.sky.com/video/clegg-you-live-by-the-sword-you-die-by-the-sword-10909195 Sky News (9 June 2017)
2017

“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 (1571–1646) samurai and daimyo of the early Edo period

As quoted in Soul of the Samurai (2005) by Thomas Cleary, p. 28
Variant translation: If you have attained mastery of swordlessness, you will never be without a sword.

“Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.”

Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator

“I have the consolation to reflect that during the period of my administration not a drop of the blood of a single fellow citizen was shed by the sword of war or of the law.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to papal nuncio Count Dugnani (14 February 1818)
1810s

“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

“No one need think that the world can be ruled without blood. The civil sword shall and must be red and bloody.”

Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) American general and politician, 7th president of the United States

Martin Luther, Von Kaufhandlung und Wucher, 1524, (Vol. XV, p. 302, of the Weimar edition of Luther's works).
Misattributed

“Size is a double-edged sword with great advantages and disadvantages..”

Kenneth Griffin (1968) American hedge fund manager

Interview with Harvard Investment Magazine (Winter 2005) http://www.harvardinvestmentmagazine.org/current/griffin.htm
Response to question about managing a large hedge fund.

“We have become too civilized to grasp the obvious. For the truth is very simple. To survive you often have to fight, and to fight you have to dirty yourself. War is evil, and it is often the lesser evil. Those who take the sword perish by the sword, and those who don't take the sword perish by smelly diseases.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

§ 1
Looking Back on the Spanish War (1943)

“Arms observe no bounds; nor can the wrath of the sword, once drawn, be easily checked or stayed; war delights in blood.”
arma non servant modum; nec temperari facile nec reprimi potest stricti ensis ira; bella delectat cruor.

Seneca the Younger Hercules Furens

Hercules Furens (The Madness of Hercules), lines 403-405; (Lycus).
Tragedies

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