Please Read the Following Sentences the Pen Is Mighter Than the Sword

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An analogy of Cardinal Richelieu holding a sword, by H. A. Ogden, 1892, from The Works of Edward Bulwer Lytton

"The pen is mightier than the sword" is a metonymic adage, created by English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839, indicating that the written give-and-take is more effective than violence as a tool for communicating a point. In some interpretations, written advice tin can refer to administrative power or an independent news media.

Origin [edit]

The sentence was coined by English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839 for his play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy.^{[1] [2]} The play was nearly Key Richelieu, though in the author's words "license with dates and details ... has been, though not unsparingly, indulged".^[1] The Cardinal's line in Act II, scene Ii, was more fully:^[3]

Truthful,—This!
Beneath the rule of men entirely great
The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold
The arch-enchanters wand!— itself a nothing!—
But taking sorcery from the chief-mitt
To paralyse the Cæsars—and to strike
The loud earth breathless!—Take away the sword—

States can exist saved without it!^[4]

The play opened at London'southward Covent Garden Theatre on seven March 1839 with William Charles Macready in the pb role.^[v] Macready believed its opening nighttime success was "unequivocal"; Queen Victoria attended a performance on 14 March.^[5]

In 1870, literary critic Edward Sherman Gould wrote that Bulwer "had the practiced fortune to exercise, what few men tin hope to practice: he wrote a line that is likely to alive for ages".^[2] Past 1888 some other author, Charles Precipitous, feared that repeating the phrase "might sound trite and commonplace".^[6] The Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, which opened in 1897, has the aphorism decorating an interior wall.^{[7] [viii]} Although Bulwer'due south phrasing was novel, the thought of communication surpassing violence in efficacy had numerous predecessors.

The maxim quickly gained currency, says Susan Ratcliffe, associate editor of the Oxford Quotations Dictionaries. "By the 1840s information technology was a commonplace."^[ix]

Predecessors [edit]

Earliest sources [edit]

Assyrian sage Ahiqar, who reputedly lived during the early on seventh century BCE, coined the kickoff known version of this phrase. One copy of the Teachings of Ahiqar, dating to near 500 BCE, states, "The word is mightier than the sword."^[x]

Co-ordinate to the website Trivia Library,^[12] the book The People'southward Almanac ^[11] lists several supposed predecessors to Bulwer'south phrasing. Their outset case comes from the Greek playwright Euripides, who died c. 406 BCE. He is supposed to take written: "The tongue is mightier than the blade."^{[12] [a]}

Biblical and talmudic sources [edit]

Several possible precursors do announced in the Old and New Testaments,^[xiv] for example, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, whose authorship is uncertain, poetry 4:12 has been translated as: "Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than whatever two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the center."^[15]

Islamic sources [edit]

The Islamic prophet Muhammad is quoted, in a proverb narrated by 'Abdullah ibn Amr: "In that location will be a tribulation that volition wipe out the Arabs in which those killed on both sides are in the Hellfire. In that time the spoken word volition be stronger than the sword".^[16] The source of the maxim "The ink of the scholar is holier than the blood of the martyr" attributed to him has been proven to exist either fabricated, unsound or weak.^[17]

Abu'fifty-Fazl ibn Mubarak, who died in 1602 and was personal scribe and vizier to Akbar the Great, wrote of a gentleman put in charge of a fiefdom having "been promoted from the pen to the sword and taken his place among those who bring together the sword to the pen, and are masters both of peace and war."^{[18] [20]} Syad Muhammad Latif, in his 1896 history of Agra, quoted King Abdullah of Bokhara (Abdullah-Khan II), who died in 1598, as maxim that "He was more than agape of Abu'50-Fazl's pen than of Akbar's sword."^[21]

Early pre-enlightenment sources [edit]

In 1529, Antonio de Guevara, in Reloj de príncipes, compared a pen to a lance, books to artillery, and a life of studying to a life of war.^{[22] [23]} Thomas Due north, in 1557, translated Reloj de príncipes into English as Diall of Princes. ^[23] The analogy would announced in once again in 1582, in George Whetstone's An Heptameron of Civil Discourses: "The dashe of a Pen, is more greeuous than the counterbuse of a Launce."^{[24] [b]}

Netizens have suggested that a 1571 edition of Erasmus' Institution of a Christian Prince contains the words "There is no sworde to bee feared more than the Learned pen",^{[25] [26]} but this is not evident from mod translations^[27] and this could be simply a spurious quotation.

William Shakespeare in 1600, in his play Hamlet Human action ii, scene II, wrote: "...many wearing rapiers are afraid of goosequills."^{[12] [28]}

Robert Burton, in 1621, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, stated: "It is an old saying, A blow with a discussion strikes deeper than a blow with a sword: and many men are as much galled with a calumny, a scurrilous and bitter jest, a libel, a pasquil, satire, apologue, epigram, stage-play or the like, as with any misfortune any."^[29] Afterward listing several historical examples he concludes: "Hinc quam sit calamus saevior ense patet",^[29] which translates as "From this it is clear how much more cruel the pen may be than the sword."^[12]

Early modern sources [edit]

The French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821), known to history for his military machine conquests, also left this often-quoted remark: "Iv hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a 1000 bayonets." He as well said: "In that location are only two powers in the world, saber and mind; at the end, saber is e'er defeated past mind." ("Il northward'y a que deux puissances au monde, le sabre et fifty'esprit : à la longue, le sabre est toujours vaincu par l'esprit.").

Thomas Jefferson, on 19 June 1792, ended a letter to Thomas Paine with: "Go on then in doing with your pen what in other times was done with the sword: shew that reformation is more practicable by operating on the mind than on the trunk of homo, and be assured that information technology has not a more sincere votary nor you lot a more ardent well-wisher than Y[ou]rs. &c. Thomas Jefferson"^{[12] [xxx]}

Published in 1830, by Joseph Smith, an account in the Book of Mormon related, "the discussion had a greater tendency to atomic number 82 the people to exercise that which was just; yea, it had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword".^[31]

Every bit motto and slogan [edit]

• The phrase appeared as the motto of aureate pen manufacturer Levi Willcutt during a Railroad Jubilee in Boston, Massachusetts, which ran during the week first 17 September 1852.^[32]
• The motto appears in the school room illustration on page 168 of the outset edition of Mark Twain'south The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). The words "pen" and "is" are suspiciously shut together leading some scholars to speculate that the illustrator, True Williams, deliberately chose the narrow spacing as a subtle obscene prank.^[33]
• Woodrow Wilson's 1916 U.South. presidential re-ballot entrada used the slogan "He proved the pen mightier than the sword".
• It is the motto of the Alpha Xi Delta sorority.
• It is besides the motto of Kaisei Academy in Tokyo, Japan.
• A line in The Beach Boys' song "Student Demonstration Fourth dimension" says "The pen is mightier than the sword/But no match for the gun".
• In its Latinized form, Calamus Gladio Fortior, it is the motto of Keio Academy in Tokyo, Nippon.
• In some other Latinized form, "Cedit Ensis Calamo", information technology is the motto of the Authors' Gild of London, founded by Walter Besant in 1891.
• In another Latinized class Doctrina Fortior Armis, it is the motto of Hipperholme Grammar School, in West Yorkshire, England.
• In the 1989 film Batman, the insane criminal known as The Joker uses the phrase in a darkly literal sense, after wielding a fountain pen like a sprint to wound a rival crime lord.
• British music photographer Kevin Cummins once shot The Smiths vocalist Morrissey in front of a handwritten "pen is mightier than the sword" affiche in the background. The writing was styled and then that the starting time two words appeared to be "pen is".
• A recurring GEICO commercial uses the phrase as a question, "Is the pen mightier than the sword?" It shows a ninja wielding and brandishing a sword with elite skills; an apprentice defeats him by signing (with a pen) a package for a taser, with which he then shoots the sword-wielder.^[34]
• In the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, later on Henry Jones Sr. stops a German soldier from shooting him by blinding him with ink from a fountain pen, Marcus Brody remarks that they had simply borne witness that "the pen is mightier than the sword".
• Plan B quotes the motto at the finish of his song "Sick 2 def". The proper name of the whole album Who Needs Deportment When You Got Words seems to be related to the aforementioned theme.
• The logo of the Waikato Times newspaper in New Zealand features the paradigm of a sword with a quill pen crossed on top of information technology.
• In Eminem's song 'Babe' off his album The Marshall Mathers LP 2, he uses the phrase.
• In the Flobots vocal "Stand Up," a like phrase is used which is, "Hope that the pen strokes stronger than the cannon."
• A "Glory Jeopardy!" sketch on Sat Night Live includes the first part of the phrase equally one of the categories, about quotes from famous authors, only Sean Connery (played by Darrell Hammond) ultimately misreads information technology as "The Penis Mightier", which he idea it was a penis enlargement product.

See too [edit]

• Almighty dollar
• Irenic resistance

Footnotes [edit]

1. ^ If The People's Annual ^[11] is correct, information technology should exist possible to source the expression to i of the extant works of Euripides. However, because the quote does appear in the 1935 fictional work Claudius the God and his Wife Messalina by Robert Graves,^[thirteen] it is possibly an anachronism.
2. ^ It appears as a marginal note to the passage: "The Md, that had giuen as many déepe woundes with his Pen, as euer he had doone with his Launce, shronke no more at these threates, then an Oke at the Helue of an Are, but coldely wylled him, to vse his pleasure, he was ready to defend (or to dice, in) his oppinion."

References [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b} Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy: A Play in Five Acts (2d ed.). London. 1839.
2. ^ ^{a b} Gould, Edward Sherman (1870). Good English. New York: Westward.J. Widdleton. p. 63.
3. ^ Lord Lytton (1892). The Dramatic Works of Auston. Vol. IX. New York: Peter Fenelon Collier. p. 136.
4. ^ Richelieu: or, The conspiracy : A Play, in V Acts. To Which are added, Historical Odes on The terminal days of Elizabeth; Cromwell'southward dream; The death of Nelson by the Author of the "Lady of Lyon", "Eugene Aram" & c. (1 ed.). London: Saunders and Otley, Conduit Street. 1839. p. 39. Retrieved 8 December 2016 – via Internet Archive.
5. ^ ^{a b} Macready, William Charles (1875). Sir Frederick Pollock (ed.). Macready'due south Reminiscences, and Selections from His Diaries and Letters. New York: MacMillan and Co. p. 471.
6. ^ Sharp, Charles (1888). The Sovereignty of Art. London: T. Fisher Unwin. p. 67.
7. ^ Reynolds, Charles B (1897). Library of Congress and the Interior Decorations: A Practical Guide for Visitors. New York, Washington, St. Augustine: Foster & Reynolds. p. fifteen.
8. ^ Specifically, the west wall of the entrance pavilion'south second floor south corridor
9. ^ The Idioms. TheIdioms.com - Online Idioms Dictionary
10. ^ Matthews, Victor and Benjamin, Don (2006). Old Attestation Parallels (tertiary ed.). Paulist Press. p. 304.
11. ^ ^{a b c} Wallace, Irving; Wallechinsky, David (1981). The People's Annual. New York, NY: Doubleday.
12. ^ ^{a b c d east} "Nearly the history and origins behind the famous proverb the pen is mightier than the sword". Trivia-Library.com. which cites Wallechinsky & Wallace (1981).^[xi]
13. ^ Graves, Robert (1935). Claudius, the God and His Wife Messalina. H. Smith and R. Haas. p. 122.
14. ^ see also "New American Bible". Washington, DC: Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. 2002. Book of Revelation, affiliate i:16 (footnote). Retrieved 13 November 2006. Notes like imagery too used in Revelation verses one:xvi, 2:16, and 19:xv; Ephesians 6:17; besides equally in the Quondam Attestation: Wisdom 18:15; and Isaiah 11:4; 49:ii.
15. ^ "New American Bible, Hebrews 4:12". Washington, DC: Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. 2002. Retrieved 13 November 2006.
16. ^ "Source: Musnad Aḥmad 6941, which has been graded Sahih (accurate) according to Ahmad Shakir". thirty January 2014.
17. ^ "[no title cited]". islamqa.info. 11920.
18. ^ Beveridge, H. (1902). "The Akbarnama Of Abu-fifty-Fazl". Chapter XLVI. Retrieved xv Nov 2006.
19. ^ Ahmed, Firoz Bakht (one April 2002). "Writing their ain epitaph ..." The Hindu. Archived from the original on 23 October 2002. Retrieved 13 November 2006. {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
20. ^ A source has Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak in Āīn-e Akbari (the third book of the Akbarnama), quoting his master as saying to his calligraphers "Go on doing with your pen what in other times was done with the sword" simply this is spurious. The source is a newspaper article by Ahmed (2002).^[19]
21. ^ Latif, Syad Muhammad (2003). Agra Historical & Descriptive with an Account of Akbar and His Courtroom and of the Modern City of Agra, 1896. Asian Educational Services. p. 264. ISBN81-206-1709-6.
22. ^ In Spanish: "¡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!"
23. ^ ^{a b} Di Salvo, Angelo J. (1989). "Spanish Guides to Princes and the Political Theories in Don Quijote". The Cervantes Lodge of America. Retrieved 12 Nov 2006.
24. ^ Whetstone, George (3 February 1582). "Thyrd Daies Exercise". An heptameron of ciuill discourses (2nd ed.). Richard Iones, at the signe of the Rose and the Crowne, neare Holburne Span. STC / 25337.
25. ^ "Re: Pen vs. sword". www.phrases.org.u.k.. which cites Titelman, Gregory Y. (1996). Random Business firm Lexicon of Popular Proverbs and Sayings. New York: Random Firm.
26. ^ "the pen is mightier ..." Quoteland.com. March 2003. Retrieved xv Nov 2006.
27. ^ Built-in, Lester K. (1963) [1516]. "Erasmus's Teaching of a Christian Prince". New York: Octagon Books. Retrieved 15 Nov 2006.
28. ^ Shakespeare, William. "The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark". opensourceshakespeare.org . Retrieved 15 Nov 2006.
29. ^ ^{a b} Burton, Robert (equally Democritus Junior). Hagen, Karl (ed.). "The Beefcake of Melancholy: What information technology is, with all the kinds, causes, symptoms, prognostics, and several cures of it". Project Gutenberg. Part i, Sect. two, Memb. 4, Subsect. 4.
30. ^ Jefferson, Thomas (xix June 1792). "To Thomas Paine Philadelphia, June nineteen, 1792". From Revolution to Reconstruction. Retrieved 13 November 2006.
31. ^ Smith, Jr., Joseph (26 March 1830). "The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Mitt of Mormon, upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi". Palmyra, New York: E. B. Grandin. p. 310.
32. ^ Boston (Mass.). City Quango (1852). The Railroad Jubilee. An Business relationship of the Celebration Commemorative of the Opening of Railroad Advice Between Boston and Canada. J. East. Eastburn, city printer. p. 139.
33. ^ Ensor, Allison R. (1989). "Mightier Than the Sword" An Undetected Obscenity in the Get-go Edition of TOM SAWYER". Vol. 27, no. 1, Bound. Mark Twain Periodical. p. 25.
34. ^ Link to commercial

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_pen_is_mightier_than_the_sword

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