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| | Post 11 |
| ICBM | ahh we are lost.. How am I going to search for quotes said after Lytton!? pretty complicating..
__________________ ~when a man does his best, what else is there? Gen.George S.Patton |
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| | Post 12 |
| Chief Engineer ![]() | Just try harder.
__________________ "It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle." - Norman Schwarskopf, Commander of Desert Storm Operations |
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| | Post 13 |
| Tribunus Laticlavius | I found out that "Giles"... one of the characters of "Buffy the vampire slayer" said the quote you are looking for. I typed it in google, between citation-marks and I got a few hits. He was amongst them..... but I doubt if he's the one you are looking for!
__________________ A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. Sir Winston Churchill |
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| | Post 14 |
| ICBM | lol, no, I am looking for a historical person heh.. any luck? |
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| | Post 15 |
| Milites Gregarius | I think you've all established that Bulwer-Lytton wrote 'The pen is mightier than the sword' in 1839, that it's now a common proverb, and that we're looking for a reversal of that proverb. I would start by taking the history of the original proverb further back. 1st century BC: 'Cedant arma togae (Arms give way to persuasion)' (Cicero). 1571: 'There is no sworde more to bee feared than the Learned pen'. 1582: 'The dashe of a Pen, is more greevous then the counter use of a Launce'. 1586: 'Alexander surnamed Severus, would oftentimes say, that he stoode in more feare of one writer, then of a hundred souldiers, for that the wound of a pen remaineth after death'. 1602: 'Many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose-quills' (Hamlet). Before 1712: 'Poor Bob...a goosequill on for weapon ty'd, Knowing by use that now and then A sword less hurt does than a pen'. More information than you wanted, but it shows that Bulwer-Lytton wasn't so original as all that. Now, what's the reversed form that we're looking for? I'll take three guesses: 'Let none presume to tell me that the pen is preferable to the sword' (Motteux' early 18th century translation of Don Quixote). 'Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons' (attributed to General MacArthur). 'The man who said the pen was mightier than the sword ought to have tried reading The Mill on the Floss to Motor Mechanics' (Tom Sharpe). Do any of those look familiar, Mighty M? |
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| | Post 16 |
| Legatus Legionis | Antiquary, thank you. Sounds like you are a real quotations expert.
__________________ "Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it". Pericles. ![]() |
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