A PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN A SWORD
The supreme duty of both the pen and the sword is to attack. Yet the pen is considered mightier, since it is more discrete and reasonable in its attack than-the sword which is irrational and ruthless. Moreover in the epigram pen is mightier than the sword. The pen is symbolic of the conscience of humanity and the sward of exploitation and oppression. Hence it is only natural that the pen should triumph over the sword. The history of mankind holds an eloquent testimony to this.
It can be seen that with the advance of civilization man has learnt more and more to dispense with the sword. The infant years of human civilization witnessed the welding of sword by men of his livelihood. But now a civilized man equips his infant to face the world with a pen. The futility of the sword to solve human problems has been well recognized. Thus, the advance of civilization has ended in the supremacy of the pen.
Again, it can be seen that wars seldom entitle countries or men to greatness. The Roman civilization is still admired not for its vastness under the caser, but for the Pax Romana. In this sense to the pen is greater.
The pen is superior over the sword in another sense too. In the absence of the inspiration provided by the pen, the sword has always been inert. Right from the American Revolution, up to the Russian Revolution, all the great Revolutions of the world were preceded by an intellectual revolution. But the sword could never inspire the pen. The Golden age in cultural activities of all countries was attained during times of peace.
However, there have always been men blind to these trends of history. Despots do have had a great dislike for the pen as it stood in the way of their selfish interests.There was a Chinese emperor Wahg Cheng, burnt Volutes of writings. More recently in a number of dictatorial countries and other communist countries, the freedom of the pen has been ruthlessly curbed.
There is another threat to the freedom of the pen in this modern age is world poverty. The establishment of the supremacy of the pen in the prelude to banishing poverty from the country.
Thus it can be seen that the pen has always been reigning supreme over the sword, and whenever the process was reversed, it invariably did spell misery.