“Who was the first discoverer of the horrible sword? How savage was he and literally iron!”
Quis fuit, horrendos primus qui protulit enses?
quam ferus et vere ferreus ille fuit!
Bk. 1, no. 10, line 1.
Elegies
Original
Quis fuit, horrendos primus qui protulit enses?<br/>quam ferus et vere ferreus ille fuit!
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Tibullus 11
poet and writer (0054-0019) -50–-19 BCRelated quotes

The Living Testament: The Essential Writings of Christianity Since the Bible (1985), p. 66.
From St. Athanasius' Life of St. Antony

Abdul Kadir Badauni. Elliott and Dowson, The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians, Vol. V, p 253.
Source: Drenai series, The Swords of Night and Day, Ch. 21
Context: "No golden age to discover now," he whispered. "No end to disease and starvation. No, bright sparkling cities reaching the clouds... All that I have lived for is gone now. I am so tired.""Then think on this, priest: You stopped the Eternal from finding greater weapons. Your actions here have led to her death. The world is free again.""Free? Of one tyrant perhaps. You think there will be no others?""No, I do not. But I know there will always be men to stand against them. You grieve because of a pure magic lost. That magic was corrupted by evil. This is how evil thrives. We find an herb that cures disease, and someone will make a poison from it. We forge iron to make a better plow, and someone will make a sharper sword. There can be no power that evil will not corrupt."

“How oft he finds himself the last, who was the first to saddle.”
Pt. II, Lib. II, Ch. IX.
Guzmán de Alfarache (1599-1604)

Odysseus' song, Book III, line 424
The Odyssey : A Modern Sequel (1938)
Context: The worm stood straight on God's blood-splattered threshold then
and beat his drum, beat it again, and raised his throat:
'You've matched all well on earth, wine, women, bread, and song,
but why, you Murderer, must you slay our children? Why?'
God foamed with rage and raised his sword to pierce that throat,
but his old copper sword, my lads, stuck at the bone.
Then from his belt the worm drew his black-hilted sword,
rushed up and slew that old decrepit god in heaven!
And now, my gallant lads — I don't know when or how —
that worm's god-slaying sword has fallen into my hands;
I swear that from its topmost iron tip the blood still drips!