Help answer this question below.
A sword can only kill one person at a time and tends not to be very persuasive in the long run.
A pen can tell many people with many swords to kill many people, or turn many citizens against their rulers.
Obviously none of you hae been stabbed with a pen! Small, precise, fits between your ribs. Let's just say I would have rather had a clean sword slice than the jagged pen stabbing I got.
Hmmm...I'm not sure your analogy serves, as neither a pen nor a sword is an action or word. Both are objects - nouns.
The act of writing is an action, it is expressing an idea. A sword can harm bodies, but the written word can change hearts and minds.
You use this proverb to say that you can solve problems or achieve your purpose better and more effectively through communication with words than by violence with weapons.
Actions when timed correctly, can turn the tide of revolution or war. Take Hitler and Napoleon and their invasions into Russia. Had they timed it better both may have had success with dire consequences. The pen on the other hand symbolizes an idea or concept whose time has come. Thats why poets, writers, and other intellectuals are murdered during revolutions and times of civil unrest. Its also why books and documents are burned or censored. Ideas created by the pen can be very detrimental to a dictator or anyone who struggles to control great masses of people through fear and intimidation.
The phrase "the pen is mightier than the sword" can have many meanings. I like to take the example of the Declaration of Independance. Americans fought long and hard for their freedom with guns and swords. But the mightiest act of all came when a group of men got together and wrote the Declaration of Independance. In this document, America's forefathers were making a strong statement against England. With that declaration, they declared their intent to be a freed from the crown. That document did much to attain freedom for New England. Because of that document, America is a free country. The hearts and souls of those under the rule of the British crown were poured out with that pen. And thus America was born, not because of the might of the sword (or gun), but because what was poured out onto that parchment with that pen was the might, strength, and desires of a people fighting to be free.
In addition to Everest's excellent answer, if you think about what you have achieved in your life. Education, qualifications, a job, marriage, the ability to drive, penpals, even those people you send CHirstamd cards to but never manage to meet up with. How much of that could you accomplish with a sword rather than a pen?
"actions are stronger than words" means that it means more to do something than to say you will do it. "the pen is mightier than the sword" means that writing (the bible for exaple) can change the world more than using force.
The written word is a powerful thing. Sometimes, spoken words disappear in the air as if they were vapor. The written word can stand out as a bold witness years later. Ready to speak again when the reader comes across it.
By spoken word, civilizations have passed down their legends and thus stayed alive for centuries.
The civilizations that we know best though are the ones that have had their story written down and preserved for us.
Today's the perfect day to ask that question.
If, instead of giving speeches, MLK tried to violently confront the government, how effective do you think he would have been?
The sword is a temporary item. It is the servant of an idea.
The pen creates permanence. It helps to create ideas.
Because you can harm one person at a time with a sword, but words (printed, spoken, radio, TV, internet) can reach many many people at once and influence them to help change the couse of things.
Words can change the way people think and even change their hearts. Swords and other weapons can only restrain, intimidate, and control while they are being brandished. Words can effect permanent change; swords are temporary "fixes" at best.
Very deep question!
If we were gonna turn this into a sort of rock, paper, scissors, I'd take the "A picture is worth a thousand words!" to block.
Many here have made GOOD points, Action IS important, but a formal declaration of war can kill many more than a single sword.
But proof of an atrocity(in a picture) can move many to action faster than someone telling about it in writing.
You can kill and write with a pen but you cant write with the sword ;)
Actions are stronger than words, but words are more insidious.
And while it takes years of training to be any good with a sword, and years of trainging to be really good with a pen, what the pen writes can be picked up and used by anyone, even someone with no training at all for years or even centuries after the author has turned to dust. Especially if someone makes copies...
Actions strongly influence those who witness them. Words live forever and therefore are able to affect multitudes for a millennia.
Because people tend to put more thought behind a pen. Also, people seem to have a harder time of lying through actions
Because although what you do says more about you than what you say, a pen can gouge someone's eye out, while you'd have to try really hard to do that with a sword. Yeah, and the written word affects people a lot more than any sword ever could.
THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD? Here, we are offered the insight that words are superior to action, even deady killers, like swords. Meet Martin Luther's printed words that changed history, and all the king's men were useless.
so yea u get my point?
They see you with that big ass flamberge. They dont see you with that pen you got hidden up your sleeve. Just a joke.
Great question, but they are just sayings. Metphorical sayings, mind you.
Oh, and 'actions SPEAK louder than words'. Say for instance you stuck your middle finger up at someone. It's gonna be more offensive than writing down 'I stick my middle minger up at you'.
The pen is mightier than the sword because peoples names are written into history, there is no other way to record actions. Hence, the interpretation of the person with the pen has more of an impact on future generations' thoughts on the individual who swung the sword, compared to the reasons behind why the person with the sword swung it.
i honestly don't see the contradiction in these two metaphors...
This is the way I see it.... actions are truly stronger than words when you are expressing a particular emotion...
To kill somebody expresses exactly how evil, angry or desperate a person is more than if he actually just described it.... That goes with declaring war... when a country goes into war the anger or desire to conquer becomes more apparent than if it were just said....
But then though actions are stronger, the pen is mightier because it can effect change or get the job done without the need to destroy...
at first i find the statement a bit contradiction... but they both really have no relevance between each other.. first,=action is stronger than words means that it is more convincing to act the words you speak rather that just saying it.. in the pen mightier than the sword, it could covert many people more... and it is using what you know in a non-violence way...
with a sword you can kill only a person at a time. with a pen you can make people commit suicide or murder.
Because a word cannot exist without an action - therefore action is required in order for words to exist. Whether spoken or written. Since a pen is a tool of action required to create the written word. A sword is only good for destroying the communication process (metaphysically), but you can showcase your swords to stimulate conversation or draw words in the sand. But since these are actions, it still holds true.
TM
that too,is in the Torah.
with a pen you can change many lives. with a sword you can only end them.
Perhaps for the same reason as the tongue is mightier than the blade?
I suppose the concept is that violence is not the best way to solve problems- that we have language and should use it to solve our problems.
The 'actions are stronger than words' saying, I suppose originates from a different concept, probably reliability. If you promise something (words) you have to follow up on your words (action) or else, what you say is not reliable.
My 2 cents worth.
Because a pen signs a law to tear a building down. Then actions rip it to the ground.
because the action of twisting a sword into words can only be performed by a pen (or a keyboard!)
Pens can over-throw corrupt governments and illuminate the long-hidden truths held out of the reach of the masses. While a sword can just kill the cold mortal shell of the human form.
Good question...But very true.
Because it is the writers who have the power to take down civilzations, to create chaos, to start revolutions.
They act as a catalyst.
Because the pen has the ability to record your thoughts and ideas on paper for many people to read. The sword ends someones life and doesnt help the cause.
The pen has endless power. There is no limit to the the things it can do. It can break a heart, profess love for another, start a war, end a war etc.
The sword has only one power.
For me- I would be able to go back time after time and reread - And the sword it happen's and then it's done !
Because you can stab someone in the neck without having to flail a sword around
Because it can be smuggled through a metal detector and used to stab someone, whereas a sword would be discovered. :)
because the pen gives word to send the swords to war.
maybe you stab them with the pen....ever seen 'Grosse pointe blank'?
Because people like to think that words can't hurt you but they can for some people.
The sentence: "ACTIONS ARE STRONGER THAN WORDS" is self-explanetary.
Words! Words!.Words! Stop chattering, and DO something!!
That's the end of that subject.
Now,"THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD" is a different concept and has no connection with the above. Several answers have already explained it.
God knows!
Part of the problem here is that your creating a false analogy. in certain cases both of these statements are true, take for instance politicians (dont read too deeply into this one) they may speak alot on a certain issue but until they act their words are useless.
now take for instance a situation posed by many of the above commentors, the written word insiting rebellion or opening the worlds eyes to evils done.
That depends on how sharp the pen is and how short the sword is.
The correct quote reads as follows:
"The pen is mightier than the sword."
And
"Action speaks louder than words."
No one mentioned anything about them being "stronger."
Louder does not always imply stronger.
i forgot who said this, but here's a quote...
"The man who thought pen was mightier than the sword, obviously never dealt with an automatic weapon"
Writing persuasive words is an action.
perception...this question deserves every point that can be awarded!
Actions speak louder than words is applicable in circumstances wherein many speak of loyalty, belief and honour, but at the earliest instance of a change in fortune or situation people tend to change their opinions, outlook and allegiance. This renders words as merely superficial and vacuous and implicates action and deed as the greater indicator of a person’s conviction or mettle than what is actually spoken.
The pen or the sword is as potent or as forceful as he who wields them. A pen daubed in blood, flowing with vitriolic write upon papyrus s of little cause or consequence. A pen flowing with kindness and love, write with the wisdom and peace upon marble and stone is far greater than any sword wielded by the angered and unleashed upon a vulnerable.
The might of the pen or sword is entirely dependent upon he who wields it.
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You're reading If actions are stronger than words, why is the pen mightier than the sword?
- which can also be phrased in the following ways:
Why is the pen mightier than the sword?
Comments
nice, that was exactly what i was going to say!
by cdPlaya363 on December 1st, 2006
You phrased that better than I was going to.
by Aelfward on January 5th, 2007
good answer
by The_straight_kid on January 6th, 2007
I agree
by -Freedom Issues- Minnesota nice on May 13th, 2008
brilliant
by snackbar on September 25th, 2008
exactly, the pen can change your mind about how to weild your sword.
by jimmyDvidiot on April 16th, 2009
whuh?
by The_straight_kid on April 16th, 2009
if you have the power to kill, your still under the influence of those who send your orders. and if you read propaganda you could be motivated in a new direction, same thing jerv, said more words
by jimmyDvidiot on April 20th, 2009