“The desert knows me well, the night, the mounted men
The battle and the sword, the paper and the pen”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O04oUcNXmdI <br class="br">Context: When the lion bares his teeth, do not<br>fancy that the lion shows to you a smile.<br>I have slain the man that sought my heart's blood many a time,<br>Riding a noble mare whose back none else may climb,<br>Whose hind and fore-legs seem in galloping as one,<br>Nor hand nor foot requireth she to urge her on.<br>And O the days when I have swung my fine-edged glaive<br>Amidst a sea of death where wave was dashed on wave!<br>The desert knows me well, the night, the mounted men<br>The battle and the sword, the paper and the pen
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Al-Mutanabbi13
Arabic poet from the Abbasid era 915–965Related quotes
“Beneath the rule of men entirely great,
The pen is mightier than the sword.”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton Richelieu
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.
Richelieu (1839)
“Let none presume to tell me that the pen is preferable to the sword.”
Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book IV, Ch. 10.
“The pen is mightier than the sword, if you shoot that pen out of a gun”
Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor
“The pen worse than the sword.”
Hinc quam sic calamus sævior ense, patet.
Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy
Section 2, member 4, subsection 4.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part I
“There is more done with pens than with swords.”
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896) Abolitionist, author
This is very similar in theme to "Beneath the rule of men entirely great, The pen is mightier than the sword." by Edward Bulwer-Lytton.
Attributed
“My pen in this, my sword in that hand hold.”
Luís de Camões (1524–1580) Portuguese poet
Numa mão sempre a espada, e noutra a pena.
Stanza 79, line 8 (tr. Richard Fanshawe)
Epic poetry, Os Lusíadas (1572), Canto VII
