the pen is mightier than the sword
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English
Etymology
This phrasing due to Bulwer-Lytton, 1839.[1] The sentiment is traditional, and has many antecedents; see Wikipedia.[2][3][4]
Pronunciation
Audio (General Australian): (file)
Proverb
the pen is mightier than the sword
- (idiomatic, metonymically) More influence and power can be usurped by writing than by fighting.
- 1982, Michael Schudson, The Power of News, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 142:
- If the pen is mightier than the sword in American history, it is more likely the pen of a novelist than the typewriter of a reporter — Harriet Beecher Stowe stimulating antislavery sentiment or Upton Sinclair enlisting citizens in outrage against the food-processing industry.
- 2011, Qazi Nasir Uddin, Ph.D., The Other Side, Author House (→ISBN), page 108:
- If my teachers had not told me that the pen is mightier than the sword, if my parents had not told me that I have to respect books, I would not have developed that respect for knowledge.
Antonyms
Hyponyms
Translations
more power can be usurped by writing than fighting
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References
- ^ Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1839) Richelieu; or, The conspiracy: a play, page 40: “Beneath the rule of men entirely great, / The pen is mightier than the sword.”
- ^ Cicero (44 BCE) “I.lxxvii”, in De Officiis (in Latin): “cēdant arma togae ― arms yield to persuasion”
- ^ Antonio de Guevara (1529) Thomas North, transl., Reloj de príncipes [The Diall of Princes] (in Spanish), published 1557: “¡Cuánta diferencia vaya de mojar la péñola de la tinta a teñir la lanza en la sangre, y estar rodeados de libros o estar cargados de armas, de estudiar cómo cada uno ha de vivir o andar a saltear en la guerra para a su prójimo matar!”
- ^ William Shakespeare (1600) “Act 2, scene II”, in Hamlet: “[…] many wearing rapiers are afraid of goosequills.”
Further reading
the pen is mightier than the sword on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
