William Shakespeare on War
1564–1616 England
← All quotes by William Shakespeare
56 quotes
Worthy fellows, and like to prove most sinewy sword-men.
Give them great meals of beef and iron and steel, they will eat like wolves and fight like devils.
Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.
Many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose-quills.
It is a sword of Spain, the ice-brook’s temper.
Let this my sword report what speech forbears.
Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent.
O, now doth Death line his dead chaps with steel;
The swords of soldiers are his teeth, his fangs.
Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember thy swashing blow.
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battle render'd you in music.
What mean these masterless and gory swords
To lie discolour'd by this place of peace?
By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I’ll kill him; by this sword, I will.
To reap the harvest of perpetual peace,
By this one bloody trial of sharp war.
I’ll make thee eat iron like an ostrich, and swallow my sword like a great pin.
I am a soldier and unapt to weep
Or to exclaim on fortune's fickleness.
He has been bred i’ th’ wars
Since he could draw a sword.
Attribution
Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: William Shakespeare (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.