https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O04oUcNXmdI
Context: When the lion bares his teeth, do not
fancy that the lion shows to you a smile.
I have slain the man that sought my heart's blood many a time,
Riding a noble mare whose back none else may climb,
Whose hind and fore-legs seem in galloping as one,
Nor hand nor foot requireth she to urge her on.
And O the days when I have swung my fine-edged glaive
Amidst a sea of death where wave was dashed on wave!
The desert knows me well, the night, the mounted men
The battle and the sword, the paper and the pen
“Let none presume to tell me that the pen is preferable to the sword.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book IV, Ch. 10.
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Miguel de Cervantes 178
Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright 1547–1616Related quotes
“The pen is mightier than the sword, if you shoot that pen out of a gun”
“The pen worse than the sword.”
Hinc quam sic calamus sævior ense, patet.
Section 2, member 4, subsection 4.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part I
“There is more done with pens than with swords.”
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.”
Numa mão sempre a espada, e noutra a pena.
Stanza 79, line 8 (tr. Richard Fanshawe)
Epic poetry, Os Lusíadas (1572), Canto VII
“The strokes of the pen need deliberation as much as the sword needs swiftness.”
As quoted in Stories Behind the Hymns That Inspire America: Songs That Unite Our Nation (2003) by Ace Collins, p. 36.