Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy is an 1839 historical play by the British writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton. It portrays the life of the Seventeenth Century French statesmen Cardinal Richelieu.
“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)
“Take away the sword;
States can be saved without it.”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton Richelieu
Act iii, Scene i.
Richelieu (1839)
“In the lexicon of youth, which fate reserves
For a bright manhood, there is no such word
As "fail."”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton Richelieu
Act iii, Scene i.
Richelieu (1839)
“Our glories float between the earth and heaven
Like clouds which seem pavilions of the sun.”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton Richelieu
Act v, Scene iii.
Richelieu (1839)
