Pen Quotes

The pen has shaken nations.

Pens carry further than rifled cannon.

The pen is the lever that moves the world.

You write with ease, to show your breeding, But easy writing's curst hard reading.

So far had the pen, under the king, the superiority over the sword. [Fr., Tant la plume a eu sous le roi d'avantage sur l'epee.]

Men of quality are in the wrong to undervalue, as they often do, the practise of a fair and quick hand in writing; for it is no immaterial accomplishment. [Lat., Non sest aliena res, quae fere ab honestis negligi solet, cura bene ac velociter scribendi.]

The pen is a formidable weapon; but a man can kill himself with it a great deal more easily than he can other people.

The chisel is the pen of the sculptor.

The sacred Dove a quill did lend From her high-soaring wing.

The swifter hand doth the swift words outrun: Before the tongue hath spoke the hand hath done.

No man was more foolish when he had not a pen in his hand (than Goldsmith), or more wise when he had.

Goose [pen] bee [wax] and calf [parchment] govern the world. [Lat., Anser, apie, vitellus, populus et regna gubernant.]

The strokes of the pen need deliberation as much as those of the sword need swiftness.

For what made that in glory shine so long But poets' Pens, pluckt from Archangels' wings?

The pen wherewith thou dost so heavenly sing Made of a quill from an angel's wing.

Oh! nature's noblest gift--my gray-goose quill! Slave of my thoughts, obedient to my will, Torn from thy parent-bird to form a pen, That might instrument of little men!

From this it appears how much more cruel the pen may be than the sword. [Lat., Hinc quam sit calamus saevior euse, patet.]

Beneath the rule of men entirely great The pen is mightier than the sword.

Take away the sword; States can be saved without it; bring the pen.

I had rather stand the shock of a basilisk than the fury of a merciless pen.