What is the meaning of pen is mightier than the sword by jose rizal?

Answer 1

The pen is mightier than the sword can be interpreted as several meanings. One can be simply that the pen (a symbol for writing) can say many things. For one, it is more powerful than the sword because it can be very cogent to do something. Libel (the act of writing slander, untrue gossip) is more cogent than threatening to kill them because it means that their reputation is ruined rather than their life ended. Libel means that the person has to live questioned for the rest of their life and feel pain for life, whereas killing them ends it right away. The pen is mightier than the sword also means that the pen has done more productive things than the sword has done. The pen has convinced several people to do the will of dictators, for example. Propaganda has convinced more people to do than death has. Propaganda makes people work because it makes the country that the victims live in seem glorified and gives them a reason to work for the country, whereas killing makes them work out of fear and gives them the will to rebel rather than be productive. As one can see, the pen is therefore mightier than the sword because of the things it has done in history. It has done many glorified as well as terrible things in history.