Advice, Edward Bulwer-Lytton


Beneath the rule of men entirely great,
The pen is mightier than the sword.

- Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873), Richelieu (1839)

Act ii, Scene ii. This is the origin of the much quoted phrase "the pen is mightier than the sword". Compare: "Hinc quam sic calamus sævior ense, patet. The pen worse than the sword", Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 4, Subsect. 4.

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