Orlando Furioso

Unhappy soldier, turn in your weapons to be melted down, even to your very sword: carry a musket on your shoulder or an arquebus--else you will go without wages! / Wicked, ugly invention, how did you find a place in human hearts? You have destroyed military glory, and dishonoured the profession of arms; valour and martial skill are now discredited, so that often the miscreant will appear a better man than the valiant. Because of you no longer may boldness and courage go into the field to match their strength. / Many a baron, many a knight now lies in the earth, and so shall many more on your account, before this war is ended which has brought tears to all the world but most of all to Italy. I have said it, and I speak no lie: the man who invented such abominable contraptions was crueller by far than all the most evil of evil geniuses the world has known.

Quoted on September 30, 2011