The Pen Is Mightier Than the Sword

This exact wording comes from English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1839 play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy, first performed at London's Covent Garden. The line belongs to Cardinal Richelieu, a man of the church who can't defend himself with a blade against a plot on his life, and instead resolves to use his writing to turn public opinion in his favour. Bulwer-Lytton wasn't working from nothing, though: similar sentiments show up much earlier, including a line in Shakespeare's Hamlet (1602) about men "afraid of goose-quills," and a 1582 line comparing the "dashe of a Pen" to being struck by a lance.