“It is many years since I have wielded a weapon larger than a pen, borne anything weightier than a difficult problem in philosophy.”

Book 3, Chapter 5 “Five Heroes and a Heroine” (p. 467)
The Runestaff (1969)

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English writer, editor, critic 1939

David Lack (1910–1973) British ornithologist and biologist

Source: Swifts in a Tower (1956), p. 108, 2nd edition, 1973

“Wise is he who this hour, not year by year,
Makes himself safeguards, antidotes and shields
Against the weapons death or fortune wields.”

Francesco Berni (1497–1535) Italian poet

XXXI, 2
Rifacimento of Orlando Innamorato

“There is no lighter burden, nor more agreeable, than a pen. Other pleasures fail us or wound us while they charm, but the pen we take up rejoicing and lay down with satisfaction, for it has the power to advantage not only its lord and master, but many others as well, even though they be far away — sometimes, indeed, though they be not born for thousands of years to come.”

Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374) Italian scholar and poet

Letter to Giovanni Boccaccio (28 April 1373) as quoted in Petrarch : The First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters (1898) edited by James Harvey Robinson and Henry Winchester Rolfe, p. 426
Context: Continued work and application form my soul's nourishment. So soon as I commenced to rest and relax I should cease to live. I know my own powers. I am not fitted for other kinds of work, but my reading and writing, which you would have me discontinue, are easy tasks, nay, they are a delightful rest, and relieve the burden of heavier anxieties. There is no lighter burden, nor more agreeable, than a pen. Other pleasures fail us or wound us while they charm, but the pen we take up rejoicing and lay down with satisfaction, for it has the power to advantage not only its lord and master, but many others as well, even though they be far away — sometimes, indeed, though they be not born for thousands of years to come. I believe I speak but the strict truth when I claim that as there is none among earthly delights more noble than literature, so there is none so lasting, none gentler, or more faithful; there is none which accompanies its possessor through the vicissitudes of life at so small a cost of effort or anxiety.

“Over the years, Charlie [Munger, Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman] and I have observed many accounting-based frauds of staggering size. Few of the perpetrators have been punished; many have not even been censured. It has been far safer to steal large sums with pen than small sums with a gun.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

1988 Chairman's Letter http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1988.html <br class="br">Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

“A region is an area safely larger than the last one to whose problems we found no solution.”

Jane Jacobs book The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Source: The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), p. 410

“The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

Speech in the House of Commons, November 11, 1942 Debate on the address http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1942/nov/11/debate-on-the-address#column_39. <br class="br">The Second World War (1939–1945)

“I think it's true, as many say, I have dealt for many years with the problems that w:Op art so-called, is dealing with. For many years I have studied the logic and magic of color. And so I know what's involved when it comes to the interaction of colors, more than many who refuse to study it. But I found a way to study it, I think, that's all. And besides I refuse to be the father of a new bandwagon.”

Josef Albers (1888–1976) German-American artist and educator

Homage to the square' (1964), Oral history interview with Josef Albers' (1968)

“Sometimes it is more difficult to formulate the criterion for a problem than to state the question itself.”

Robert E. Machol (1917–1998) American systems engineer

Source: Information and Decision Processes (1960), p. xi

“Since I am not well and have difficulty walking... More than anything else, I need lots of rest; even letter-writing is a strain.”

Otto Mueller (1874–1930) German painter and printmaker of the expressionist movement

in letter 03-223, Summer 1930, from Bad Salzbrunn; as quoted in Otto Mueller: A Stand-Alone Modernist, Dieter W. Posselt; 2006 / new edition 2010, Books on Demand, GmbH, Norderstedt, Germany - ISBN:978-3-8448-6866-1

“Decadence is a difficult word to use since it has become little more than a term of abuse applied by critics to anything they do not yet understand or which seems to differ from their moral concepts.”

Ernest Hemingway book Death in the Afternoon

Source: Death in the Afternoon (1932), Ch. 7

“It is many years since I have wielded a weapon larger than a pen, borne anything weightier than a difficult problem in philosophy.”

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