Another excerpt from Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai that struck me as especially relevant:
A certain person said the following.
There are two kinds of dispositions, inward and outward,
and a person who is lacking in one or the other is worthless.
It is, for example, like the blade of a sword, which one should
sharpen well and then put in its scabbard, periodically taking
it out and knitting one’s eyebrows as in an attack, wiping the
blade, and then placing it in its scabbard again.
If a person has his sword out all the time, he is habitually
swinging a naked blade; people will not approach him and he
will have no allies.
If a sword is always sheathed, it will become rusty, the blade
will dull, and people will think as much of its owner.
Sharpen your blades my friends!