Quotes about blade (208 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

“It seems, my main thing was to be major paid
The game sharper than a motherfucking razor blade
Say money bring bitches, bitches bring lies.”

Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapper and actor

All Eyez On Me" (1996)
1990s, All Eyez on Me (1996)

Money , Game , Bitch

“There is not one little blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make men rejoice.”

John Calvin (1509–1564) French Protestant reformer

Sermon Number 10 on I Corinthians, 698. As quoted in John Calvin: A Sixteenth-Century Portrait (1989) by William J. Bouwsma, pp. 134–135.
Epistles to the Corinthians

Men , World , Color , Grass

“How noble. Oh we would fell many…-you with magic and blade, whilst my weapons would be tooth and claw-but it would be futile in the end. They are too numerous…. We cannot defeat them, only be defeated.
- Saphira”

Christopher Paolini book Eragon

Source: Eragon

“[S]he became the Mother of God, in which work so many and such great good things are bestowed on her as pass man's understanding. For on this there follows all honor, all blessedness, and her unique place in the whole of mankind, among which she has no equal, namely, that she had a child by the Father in heaven, and such a Child…. Hence men have crowded all her glory into a single word, calling her the Mother of God…. None can say of her nor announce to her greater things, even though he had as many tongues as the earth possesses flowers and blades of grass: the sky, stars; and the sea, grains of sand. It needs to be pondered in the heart what it means to be the Mother of God.”

Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation

Luther's Works, 21:326, cf. 21:346

Men , God , Star , Flowers

“A need to concentrate on each sound, so that every blade of grass would be as important as a flower.”

Arvo Pärt (1935) Estonian composer

Arvo Pärt: 24 Preludes for a Fugue http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0358947/ (DVD, 2002)

Flowers , Grass

“A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.”

Rabindranath Tagore Stray Birds

193
Stray Birds (1916)

“Nothing thicker than a knife's blade separates happiness from melancholy.”

Virginia Woolf book Orlando: A Biography

Source: Orlando

Happiness

“Anger is stupid, and stupidity will kill you more surely than your opponent's blade.”

Patricia Briggs (1965) American writer

Source: Dragon Bones

Stupidity , Anger

“Which side of the blade is sharper? The lie or the truth? It all seems irrelevant when your jugular is sliced open and you’re lying in a pool of blood for the whole world to see.”

Nikki Sixx (1958) American musician

Truth , Lie , World , Lying

“The blade itself incites to deeds of violence.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

Source: The Odyssey

“They are working on The Fantastic Four, The Silver Surfer, Iron Man, Dr. Strange, The Hulk— they're doing a sequel to Spider-Man, a sequel to X-Men, and probably a third sequel to Blade. They still haven't gotten around to Nick Fury, Agent of S. H. I. E. L. D.”

Stan Lee (1922–2018) American comic book writer

they have to do the Ghost Rider.
On characters he created in comic books which are being used as the basis of movies. Interview at the DareDevil movie premiere (February 2003).

Men

“In the world's audience hall, the simple blade of grass sits on the same carpet with the sunbeams, and the stars of midnight.”

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali polymath

74
The Gardener http://www.spiritualbee.com/love-poems-by-tagore/ (1915)

World , Star , Grass

“As I saw that they were very friendly to us, and perceived that they could be much more easily converted to our holy faith by gentle means than by force, I presented them with some red caps, and strings of beads to wear upon the neck, and many other trifles of small value, wherewith they were much delighted, and became wonderfully attached to us. Afterwards they came swimming to the boats, bringing parrots, balls of cotton thread, javelins, and many other things which they exchanged for articles we gave them, such as glass beads, and hawk's bells; which trade was carried on with the utmost good will. But they seemed on the whole to me, to be a very poor people. They all go completely naked, even the women, though I saw but one girl. All whom I saw were young, not above thirty years of age, well made, with fine shapes and faces; their hair short, and coarse like that of a horse's tail, combed toward the forehead, except a small portion which they suffer to hang down behind, and never cut. Some paint themselves with black, which makes them appear like those of the Canaries, neither black nor white; others with white, others with red, and others with such colors as they can find. Some paint the face, and some the whole body; others only the eyes, and others the nose. Weapons they have none, nor are acquainted with them, for I showed them swords which they grasped by the blades, and cut themselves through ignorance. They have no iron, their javelins being without it, and nothing more than sticks, though some have fish-bones or other things at the ends. They are all of a good size and stature, and handsomely formed. I saw some with scars of wounds upon their bodies, and demanded by signs the of them; they answered me in the same way, that there came people from the other islands in the neighborhood who endeavored to make prisoners of them, and they defended themselves. I thought then, and still believe, that these were from the continent. It appears to me, that the people are ingenious, and would be good servants and I am of opinion that they would very readily become Christians, as they appear to have no religion. They very quickly learn such words as are spoken to them. If it please our Lord, I intend at my return to carry home six of them to your Highnesses, that they may learn our language. I saw no beasts in the island, nor any sort of animals except parrots.”

Cristoforo Colombo (1451–1506) Explorer, navigator, and colonizer

12 October 1492; This entire passage is directly quoted from Columbus in the summary by Bartolomé de Las Casas
Journal of the First Voyage

Women , People , Age , Faith

“Every blade of grass is a study; and to produce two, where there was but one, is both a profit and a pleasure.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1850s, Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society (1859)

Pleasure , Study , Grass

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien book The Fellowship of the Ring

Source: The Fellowship of the Ring, Poem Riddle of Strider

Light , Strong , Spring

“A dispassionate white sun shone at the summit of the sky. I wanted to hone myself on it till I grew saintly and thin and essential as the blade of a knife.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar

Sun

“She had a way of pouring everything of herself into what she did. When she fought, she was the blade. When she loved, she was the kiss. In that regard, she was far more … human than any I have known.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: Shadows of Self

Love , Way , Kiss

“Raphael snapped, "This isn't funny."
"That's why no one's laughing." Jace stood, hauling Raphael upright, jamming the tip of his knife between Raphael's shoulder blades.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

“Holding anger is a poison… It eats you from inside… We think that by hating someone we hurt them… But hatred is a curved blade… and the harm we do to others… we also do to ourselves.”

Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Variant: Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves.
Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003)

Hate , Thinking , Hurt , Anger

“Luke's left side was bloody. His eyes were open—blue eyes, the way they used to be. His breath was a deep rattle. "Good… blade," he croaked.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Way

“You're killing me because you want me to give a message to God for you?" Jace shook his head, the point of the blade scraping across his throat. "You're crazier than I thought”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

God

“Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation’s tears in shoulder blades.”

Borís Pasternak (1890–1960) Russian writer

LIFE magazine (13 June 1960)

Tear , Night

“A ruby-encrusted orb popped its top and helicopter blades unfolded. Leo was glad Buford the table wasn't here-he would've fallen in love.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

Love

“If fate is a millstone, we are the grist. There is nothing we can do. So I wish for strength. If I cannot protect them from the wheel, then give me a strong blade, and enough strength, to shatter fate”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Fate , Strong

“There's a fine edge to new grief, it severs nerves, disconnects reality--there's mercy in a sharp blade. Only with time, as the edge wears, does the real ache begin.”

Christopher Moore (1957) American writer of comic fantasy

Reality , Time

“They say that shoulder blades are where your wings were, when you were an angel," she said. "They say they're where your wings will grow again one day.”

David Almond book Skellig

Source: Skellig

Angels

“I had long wondered," Lan said to Tam. "About the man who had given Rand that heron-marked blade. I wondered if he had truly earned it. Now I know." Lan raised his own sword in salute.”

Robert Jordan The Wheel of Time

Source: A Memory of Light

“Love falls to earth, rises from the ground, pools around the afflicted. Love pulls people back to their feet. Bodies and souls are fed. Bones and lives heal. New blades of grass grow from charred soil. The sun rises.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers

Love , People , Soul , Affliction

“Blades before babes, you know what I’m saying?”

Rick Riordan book The Sword of Summer

Source: The Sword of Summer

“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

World , Grass

“A blade of grass is the journeywork of the stars”

Walt Whitman book Fulles d'herba

Variant: I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.
Source: Leaves of Grass

Star , Grass

“I stopped the blade two inches before it touched Andrea’s neck. Because she was my best friend, and sticking knives into your best friend’s windpipe was generally considered to be a social faux pas.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Strikes

“What is he doing here?" Curran growled.
"He's Roland's Warlord. He's here for me." He was here for the woman who had broken his master's blade.
"Tough luck. You're mine.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Strikes

“The blankets had fallen off and I stared down at her white back, the shoulder blades sticking out as if they wanted to grow into wings, poke through that skin. Little blades. She was helpless.”

Charles Bukowski book Post Office

Source: Post Office

“The Order of Merciful Aid provided merciful aid, usually on the edge of a blade or the burn of a bullet.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

“If it rusts, it can never be trusted
If its owner fails to control it, it will cut him
Yes, pride is like a blade”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Source: Bleach, Volume 08

“William untucked the covers and stood, making a mental list of everything he'd need for the coming trip. A few blades, serrated and non serrated. A vial of acid. A bone saw. A spiked paddle. A cat-o'-nine-tails. And a bag of Gummy Bears.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Darkest Secret

Cats

“There seemed to be some heavenly support beneath his shoulder blades that lifted his feet from the ground in ecstatic suspension, as if he secretly enjoyed the ability to fly but was walking as a compromise to convention.”

Zelda Fitzgerald book Save Me the Waltz

Source: Save Me the Waltz

Support , Flying

“Tell me that you don’t take that blade and drag it across your skin and pray for the courage to press down.”

Susanna Kaysen book Girl, Interrupted

Source: Girl, Interrupted

Courage

“Nico’s anger turned as cold and dark as his blade. He’d been morphed into a few plants himself, and he didn’t appreciate it. He hated people like Bryce Lawrence, who inflicted pain just for fun.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Pain , Hate , People , Anger

“Nico jumped into the crowd, kicking groins, smacking faces with the flat of his blade, bashing helmets with his pommel. In ten seconds, the Romans all lay groaning and dazed on the ground.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

“The road was frozen. The village lay quiet under the cold sky. Komako hitched up the skirt of her kimono and tucked it into her obi. The moon shone like a blade frozen in blue ice.”

Yasunari Kawabata book Snow Country

Source: Snow Country

“Do not fear so, here is one who would be a blade at your back. A shield across your breast. Here is kin, here is strength to lean upon, to share as you share in need.”

Andre Norton (1912–2005) American writer of science fiction and fantasy

Fear

“No blade can puncture the human heart like the well-chosen words of a spiteful son.”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

Heart

“No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will seriously cramp his style.”

Steven Brust (1955) American fantasy and science fiction author

“And none at all has ridden at the king's side since Aerinha, goddess of honor and flame, first taught men to forge their blades. You'd think Aerinha would have had better sense.”

Robin McKinley book The Hero and the Crown

Source: The Hero and the Crown

Men , Thinking , Sense

“A six-inch blade. I smiled. Did he buy it? It was actually just shy of four—but very nicely weighted—and as Aunt Bernice noted, a little exaggeration was always expected when describing weapons, victories, and body parts.”

Mary E. Pearson book The Kiss of Deception

Source: The Kiss of Deception

Smile , Victory , Parting

“A Half-Blood of the eldest gods, Shall reach sixteen against all odds
And see the world in endless sleep
The Hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap
A single choice shall end his days
Olympus to preserve or raze.”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

God , World , Soul , Sleep

“Thanks to the long days of rain, the blades of grass glowed with a deep-green luster, and they gave off the smell of wildness unique to things that sink their roots into the earth.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Grass

“I uncapped the blade, flung open the door, and found myself face-to-face with a black pegasus. Its voice spoke in my mind as it clopped away from the sword blade.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

“The blade must past threw the fire, else it breaks.”

Margaret Weis book The Soulforge

Source: The Soulforge

Past

“The instant that the blade tore open his flesh, the bright disk of the sun soared up and exploded behind his eyelids.”

Yukio Mishima book Runaway Horses

Source: Runaway Horses

Sun

“Trust. It is like placing a blade in someone's hand and setting the very point to your heart.”

Cassandra Clare The Bane Chronicles

Source: The Bane Chronicles

Heart

“I'm going to stab you through the heart with the same blade… not for the good of the world… but for myself.”

Kaori Yuki Japanese manga artist

World , Heart

“A blade of grass is a commonplace on Earth; it would be a miracle on Mars. Our descendants on Mars will know the value of a patch of green. And if a blade of grass is priceless, what is the value of a human being?”

Carl Sagan book Pale Blue Dot

Source: Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

Grass

“And they always slept better with blades beneath their beds.”

Cinda Williams Chima (1952) Novelist

Source: The Warrior Heir

“Han smiled, then, a bright, charming smile that lit up the room, more dangerous than any blade.
All you ever needed was that smile, she thought. I'd have given in immediately.”

Cinda Williams Chima (1952) Novelist

Source: The Exiled Queen

Smile

“I had always turned to books, to knowledge, to help me get through everything in my life—and,
sometimes, to escape it. But grief was a journey through a forest of razor blades. I walked through every
painful inch of it—no shortcuts and no anesthesia.”

Michele Bardsley (1970) American writer

Source: Don't Talk Back To Your Vampire

Life , Pain , Books , Knowledge

“Every blade in the field - Every leaf in the forest - lays down its life in its season as beautifully as it was taken up.”

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

Life , Season

“Every blade has two edges; he who wounds with one wounds himself with the other.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

“I can't even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there's a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totallylife. It's more important to confirm the least sincere. The clouds get enough attention as it is…”

Frank O'Hara (1926–1966) American poet, art critic and writer

People , Grass , Sincerity

“He taught me there's a place on a man's back where, if you sink a blade in, you can pierce his heart and sever his spine, all at once,' Sebastian had said. 'I guess we got the same birthday present that year, big brother,' Jace thought. 'Didn't we?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Birthday , Heart

“You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.”

Isoroku Yamamoto (1884–1943) Japanese Marshal Admiral

It has been declared this attribution is "unsubstantiated and almost certainly bogus, even though it has been repeated thousands of times in various Internet postings. There is no record of the commander in chief of Japan’s wartime fleet ever saying it.", according to source Brooks Jackson in "Misquoting Yamamoto" at Factcheck.org (11 May 2009) http://www.factcheck.org/2009/05/misquoting-yamamoto/, which cites source Donald M. Goldstein, sometimes called "the dean of Pearl Harbor historians", writing "I have never seen it in writing. It has been attributed to the Prange files [the files of the late Gordon W. Prange, chief historian on the staff of Gen. Douglas MacArthur] but no one had ever seen it or cited it from where they got it."
Misattributed

Grass

“Sharp it away, lad, sharp it away,” the burly guardsman said, making the blade skitter across the whetstone, “lest otherways ye’ll be a girl afore ye’re a man.”

Tad Williams (1957) novelist

Source: Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, The Dragonbone Chair (1988), Chapter 31, “The Councils of the Prince” (p. 502).

Girl

“He said the Brothers owed the Herondales because of old ties. If he dies, it will be--"
"--No one's fault. I remember when he put the protection spell on you. I told him I never wanted you to have anything to do with the Shadowhunters. He said it might not be my choice. He said that the pull of the Shadowhunters is like a riptide-- and he was right. I thought we had fought free, but here we are, back in Alicante, back in a war, and there sits my daughter with blood on her face and a Morgenstern blade in her hands.”

Cassandra Clare The Mortal Instruments

Clary Fray and Jocelyn Fray, about Brother Zachariah, pg. 220
The Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire (2014)

War , Daughters

“Yes, a woman makes a fine weapon in capable hands…slim and supple as a sword blade…and a blade to which no man’s armor is completely proof.”

Lin Carter (1930–1988) American fantasy writer, editor, critic

Source: Tower at the Edge of Time (1968), Chapter 9, “Slaves of Chan” (p. 86)

“The pygmies are one of the most cultured peoples on the face of the earth. They live a wonderful life, a life of purity. Not only are they busy and productive, they're happy and healthy as well. If we puny Americans had to live under their conditions, we'd perish in a day. Modern man has much to learn from the people he calls 'savages'. Before we are down to the last blade of grass it would be wise to study the life of the Pygmies. The secret of our own survival rests with them, the people who know how to make the most out of very little and find complete happiness with the bare essentials.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Reflections (1981)

Life , People , Secret , Business

“There is no law, in literature, against picking up a rusty weapon; the important thing is to be able to sharpen the blade and to reforge the hilt to fit one's hand.”

Alphonse Daudet (1840–1897) French novelist

Il n'est pas défendu, en littérature, de ramasser une arme rouillée; l'important est de savoir aiguiser la lame et d'en reforger la poignée à la mesure de sa main.
Souvenirs d'un homme de lettres (Paris: C. Marpon et E. Flammarion, 1888) p. 178; George Burnham Ives (trans.) Thirty Years in Paris (Boston: Little, Brown, 1900) p. 134.

Law , Literature

“Ships, houses, mills… in one word everything that is made by people must stand upright and be painted with care. This is actually a good presentation compared to other, less symmetrical things, like the trees, skies, etc. It doesn't create the painting, but it certainly strengthen the illusion. It's just like somebody who is neatly dressed, but whose tie is coming off. The windows of a house must be straight, a mill in a pure construction, the blades well-positioned in perspective.”

Willem Roelofs (1822–1897) Dutch painter and entomologist (1822-1897)

translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek
(original Dutch: citaat van Willem Roelofs, in het Nederlands:) Schepen, huizen, molens eb in één woord alles, wat door menschen gemaakt is, moet recht staan en met zorg geschilderd worden. Dit staat juist zeer goed tegenover andere, minder symmetrische dingen, als boomen, luchten enz. Het maakt het schilderij wel niet, maar draagt toch bij tot de illusie. 't Is er net mee, als met iemand, die keurig gekleed is, maar wiens das los zit. De ramen van een huis moeten recht, een molen zuiver van constructie zijn, de wieken in het perspectief staan.
Quote of Roelofs; as cited by H.F.W. Jeltes, in Willem Roelofs : bizonderheden betreffende zijn leven en zijn werk, met brieven en andere bijlagen, Van Kampen, Amsterdam, 1911, pp. 86-87
undated quotes

People , Tree , Painting , Housing

“Ten thousand branches of tall trees begin to sprout,
They droop like fringes of a robe made of green jade.
But do you know by whom these young leaves are cut out?
The early spring wind is as sharp as scissor blade.”

He Zhizhang (659–744) Chinese writer

"Willow Trees" (《咏柳》), in 150 Tang Poems, trans. Xu Yuan-zhong

Spring , Tree

“"Arrh! Stars and Mud, ever conjugate, a Paradox to consider, — one…for the Astronomer-Royal, perhaps?" His current scheme being, to assail Maskelyne's Sanity, by now and then posing to him Questions that will not bear too much cogitating upon, — most lately, Über Bernouillis Brachistochronsprobleme, 1702 by Baron von Boppdörfer ("Mind like a Spanish Blade. Read it at the Risk of your Self-Esteem.") having almost done the Trick.”

Thomas Pynchon Mason & Dixon

Source: Mason & Dixon (1997), Chapter 74

Star , Question , Reading

“This house has been far out at sea all night,
The woods crashing through darkness, the booming hills,
Winds stampeding the fields under the window
Floundering black astride and blinding wet Till day rose; then under an orange sky
The hills had new places, and wind wielded
Blade-light, luminous black and emerald,
Flexing like the lens of a mad eye.”

Ted Hughes book The Hawk in the Rain

"Wind"
The Hawk in the Rain (1957)

Light , Housing , Sea , Madness

“Wars always bring about a conservative reaction. They overwhelm and destroy patient and careful efforts to improve the condition of man. Nothing can be heard in the cannon's roar but the voice of might. All the safeguards laboriously built to preserve individual freedom and foster man's welfare are blown to pieces with shot and shell. In the presence of the wholesale slaughter of men the value of life is cheapened to the zero point. What is one life compared with the almost daily records of tens of thousands or more mowed down like so many blades of grass in a field? Building up a conception of the importance of life is a matter of slow growth and education; and the work of generations is shattered and laid waste by machine guns and gases on a larger scale than ever before. Great wars have been followed by an unusually large number of killings between private citizens and individuals. These killers have become accustomed to thinking in terms of slaying and death toward all opposition, and these have been followed in turn by the most outrageous legal penalties and a large increase in the number of executions by the state. It is perfectly clear that hate begets hate, force is met with force, and cruelty can become so common that its contemplation brings pleasure, when it should produce pain.”

Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union

Source: The Story of My Life (1932), Ch. 26 "The Aftermath Of The War"

Life , Death , Men , Pain

“When the law can stop the blades of grass
From growing as they grow,
And when the leaves in summer time
Their verdure dare not show,
Then I will change the colour
I wear in my caubeen,
But till that day I'll stick for aye
To wearing of the green.”

Dion Boucicault (1820–1890) Irish actor and dramatist

The Wearing of the Green, in Arragh na Pogue, or the Wicklow Wedding (1864)

Law , Grass , Change , Time

“There was one guy that had an amazing claim to fame, in terms of drugs and sports. And his name was Dock Ellis. And Dock Ellis did an incredible thing. The one person who knows, thank you. Dock Ellis pitched a no-hitter on LSD. Those of you who have taken LSD, tell the others how hard that might be. If I took LSD, I'd be talking to every blade of grass like "Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!"”

Robin Williams (1951–2014) American actor and stand-up comedian

Weapons of Self Destruction (2010)

Guy , Sport , Grass , Personality

“Things don't have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part has a useful function. What's the function of a galaxy? I don't know if our life has a purpose and I don't see that it matters. What does matter is that we're a part. Like a thread in a cloth or a grass-blade in a field. It is and we are. What we do is like wind blowing on the grass.”

Ursula K. Le Guin book The Lathe of Heaven

Source: The Lathe of Heaven (1971), Chapter 6 (Orr)

Life , Grass , Universe , Parting

“Defiantly live, or in honour die, Midst slashing blades and banners flying high.”

Al-Mutanabbi (915–965) Arabic poet from the Abbasid era

Source: A Young Soul

Flying

“Vials of holy water, blessed knives, steel and silver blades, electrum wire-- not much use at the moment, but it's always good to have a spare--silver bullets, charm of protection, crucifixes, stars of David-"
"Jesus," said Clary.
"I doubt he'd fit.”

Cassandra Clare The Mortal Instruments

Jace and Clary, pg. 255
The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones (2007)

Star , Water

“Youth is the time when hearts are large,
And stirring wars
Appeal to the spirit which appeals in turn
To the blade it draws.”

Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet

On the Slain Collegians, st. 1
Battle Pieces: And Aspects of the War (1860)

War , Youth , Time , Heart

“And he gave it for his opinion, that whosoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.”

Jonathan Swift book Les Voyages de Gulliver

Voyage to Brobdingnag, Ch. 7 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Gulliver%27s_Travels/Part_II/Chapter_VII
Gulliver's Travels (1726)

Grass , Country

“They were German hussars and they streamed out of the dunes leaving a trail of dust, their drawn blades glittering.”

Bernard Cornwell (1944) British writer

Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Prey (2001)

“Insects were scurrying about in the shade cast by the grass, and the lawn was a huge monotonous forest of thousands of little green blades, all equal, all alike, hiding the world from each other. Anguished, she thought, "I don't want to be just another blade of grass."”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

Regina
All Men are Mortal (1946)

World , Grass

“When the dark and vengeful spirit of slavery, always ambitious, preferring to rule in hell than to serve in heaven, fired the southern heart and stirred all the malign elements of discord, when our great republic, the hope of freedom and self-government throughout the world, had reached the point of supreme peril, when the Union of these states was torn and rent asunder at the center, and the armies of a gigantic rebellion came forth with broad blades and bloody hands to destroy the very foundations of American society, the unknown braves who flung themselves into the yawning chasm, where cannon roared and bullets whistled, fought and fell.”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

They died for their country.
1870s, The Unknown Loyal Dead (1871)

World , Hope , Hell , Freedom

“Autumn, cloud blades on the horizon.
The west wind blows from ten thousand miles.
Dawn, in the clear morning air,
Farmers busy after long rain.
The desert trees shed their few green leaves.
The mountain pears are tiny but ripe.
A Tartar flute plays by the city gate.
A single wild goose climbs into the void.”

Du Fu (712–770) Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty

"Clear After Rain" (雨晴), as translated by Kenneth Rexroth in One Hundred Poems from the Chinese (1971), p. 16

Mountain , Business , Autumn , Tree

“With your Elvis Presley and wasp-waist and swivel-hippy, show you had, and I must say it showed it first self in pictures with the rhythmic contrapole of the wobbling of the hipper, sideways with the head and tilty, gave him that expression both also with a little doggy-lublike in the eyebold which he conveyed to the smaller femailode of the specie, coupled with his music because he did trittly-how fine on the strims, helped him along the roamer […. ] I heard it first of all on a record in the early mordy: I was doing the shavit-huff with my razor blade, which of course is a safety one, and suddenly, suddenly he did a little syncopole or a drop-it and how, or something he did and caused a jerkit over a pimplode and I've been suffering ever since!”

Stanley Unwin (comedian) (1911–2002) British comedian

On Elvis
Rotatey Diskers with Unwin (1960)

Music , Suffering , Help

“Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.”

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat

Cambridge Thirty Years Ago.
Literary Essays, vol. I (1864-1890)

“A spade may be made of any size, and if the same number of strokes be made in the hour, the requisite exertion will vary nearly as the cube of the length of the blade.”

William Stanley Jevons The Theory of Political Economy

Source: The Theory of Political Economy (1871), Chapter V, Theory of Labour, p. 173.

“This hand, to tyrants ever sworn the foe,
For Freedom only deals the deadly blow;
Then sheathes in calm repose the vengeful blade,
For gentle peace in Freedom’s hallowed shade.”

John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) American politician, 6th president of the United States (in office from 1825 to 1829)

Written in an Album (1842)l compare: "Manus haec inimica tyrannis / Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem", Algernon Sidney, From the Life and Memoirs of Algernon Sidney.

Peace , Freedom

“Money will accomplish much in business, love and war but it isn't worth a cent in nature. You could plant all the doubloons lost in the Spanish Main on a New England farm and you would not raise a single ear of corn the more therefor. You could take the golden eagles of America and put them in the alfalfa fields of Indiana and you would not get a single blade more of grass. The moral is that nature has her own way of fixing valuation; and her valuation is the way of return made from the soil. She does not care the least what men may say, by way of trade and barter, that she is worth. Her worth in her own scales consists in her ability to produce something that will minister to the needs, the comforts and even to the luxuries of her children.”

Thomas R. Marshall (1854–1925) American politician who served as the 28th Vice President of the United States

Recollections of Thomas R. Marshall: A Hoosier Salad (1925), Chapter V

Love , Men , Money , War

“The trenchant blade, Toledo trusty,
For want of fighting was grown rusty,
And ate into itself, for lack
Of somebody to hew and hack.”

Samuel Butler (poet) (1612–1680) poet and satirist

Canto I, line 359
Source: Hudibras, Part I (1663–1664)

Fight

“To fight for the right, to abhor the imperfect, the unjust, or the mean, to swerve neither to the right hand nor to the left, to care nothing for flattery or applause or odium or abuse—it is so easy to have any of them in India—never to let your enthusiasm be soured or your courage grow dim, but to remember that the Almighty has placed your hand on the greatest of His ploughs, in whose furrow the nations of the future are germinating and taking shape, to drive the blade a little forward in your time, and to feel that somewhere among these millions you have left a little justice or happiness or prosperity, a sense of manliness or moral dignity, a spring of patriotism, a dawn of intellectual enlightenment, or a stirring of duty, where it did not before exist—that is enough, that is the Englishman's justification in India. It is good enough for his watchword while he is here, for his epitaph when he is gone. I have worked for no other aim. Let India be my judge.”

George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (1859–1925) British politician

Speech at the Byculla Club in Bombay (16 November 1905) two days before he left India, quoted in Lord Curzon in India, Being A Selection from His Speeches as Viceroy & Governor-General of India 1898-1905 (London: Macmillan, 1906), pp. 589-590.

Justice , Feeling , Spring , Courage

“I was a Yorkshire miner's son, the youngest of seven, and my mother was no longer so very young. She suffered from bad rheumatism in the back and would often say to me in winter, when I came home from school: 'Henry, boy, come and rub my back.' Then I would massage her back with liniment. When I came to model this figure [for his sculpture 'Seated Woman', 1957] which represents a fully mature woman, I found that I was unconsciously giving to its back the long-forgotten shape of the one that I had so often rubbed as a boy. Not just her shoulder but her whole back down from the shoulder blades with the skin close to the bone, to the fleshy lower parts. I had a strong sense of contrast between bone and flesh. I was seven or eight at the time [c. 1906].”

Henry Moore (1898–1986) English artist

Quote of Moore, 1978; as cited in Henry Moore writings and Conversations, ed. Alan Wilkinson, University of California Press, California 2002, pp. 32-33
1970 and later

School , Home , Boy , Sense