the pen is mightier than the sword

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

1. (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

• actions speak louder than words

Hyponyms

• the tongue wounds more than a lance

Translations

more power can be usurped by writing than fighting

Albanian: please add this translation if you can Arabic: please add this translation if you can Burmese: ဓားသွားထက် ကလောင်သွားထက် (dha:swa:htak ka.laungswa:htak) Chinese: Cantonese: please add this translation if you can Mandarin: 文勝於武，筆勝於劍／文胜于武，笔胜于剑 (wén shèng yú wǔ, bǐ shèng yú jiàn) Danish: pennen er mægtigere end sværdet Esperanto: plumo estas pli potenca ol spado Estonian: sõna vägi on suurem kui sõjavägi (literally “the power of a word is greater than the power of the army”) Finnish: kynä on miekkaa mahtavampi French: la plume est plus forte que l’épée (fr) German: die Feder ist mächtiger als die Klinge Greek: η γλώσσα κόκαλα δεν έχει μα κόκαλα τσακίζει (i glóssa kókala den échei ma kókala tsakízei) Italian: ne uccide più la penna della spada, la penna ferisce più della spada Japanese: ペンは剣よりも強し (ja) (ペンはけんよりもつよし, pen wa ken yori mo tsuyoshi) Latin: cedant arma togae Norwegian: Bokmål: pennen er mektigere enn sverdet Nynorsk: pennen er mektigare enn sverdet Portuguese: a pena é mais forte que a espada, a pena é mais forte do que a espada Russian: что напи́сано перо́м, не вы́рубишь и топоро́м (što napísano peróm, ne výrubišʹ i toporóm, literally “what's written by pen can't be cut by axe”) Spanish: la pluma es más poderosa que la espada Swedish: pennan är mäktigare än svärdet Telugu: కత్తి కన్నా కలం మిన్న (katti kannā kalaṁ minna) Thai: ปากกาคมกว่าดาบ (bpàak-gaa-kom-gwàa-dàap) Turkish: kalem kılıçtan keskindir (tr) Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

References

1. 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.”
2. Cicero (44 BCE) “I.lxxvii”, in De Officiis‎ (in Latin): “cēdant arma togae ― arms yield to persuasion”
3. 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!”
4. 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