Pen is mightier than the sword



English novelist and dramatist Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873) uttered the wise words “The pen is mightier than the sword” in 1839 for his play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy:

True, This! — Beneath the rule of men entirely great, The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold The arch-enchanters wand! — itself a nothing! — But taking sorcery from the master-hand To paralyse the Cæsars, and to strike The loud earth breathless! — Take away the sword — States can be saved without it! 

Indeed, politicians often are at the sharp end of the newspaper quills, such as at Global Research, ProPublica and Rolling Stone. They (the politicians) should take in the wise words from another old enemy of theirs, Napoleon Bonaparte: “Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.”

Time will tell how well journalists have been sharpening their words against the blunt ideas of the elected. Of course, you can follow the mood on the top political blogs but blogs still have some way to go to reach the edge that newspapers still swing. And to think the end of newspapers – and the end of the book – has been predicted since the dawn of the personal computer. Alas, thanks to their online presence, newspapers actually have more readers than ever before.

Books are doing pretty well too. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling became the world’s first billionaire writer. She sold many times more books than the next two best sellers, Enid Blyton and Theodor Seuss Geise (Dr Seuss), who have an estimated 100 million sales each. Really good numbers. Unless you are the villain in the story.