Quimby was eventually killed by a disgruntled poet during an experiment conducted in the palace grounds to prove the disputed accuracy of the proverb “The pen is mightier than the sword,” and in his memory it was amended to include the phrase “only if the sword is very small and the pen is very sharp.”

Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author

Discworld No. 2, The Light Fantastic (1986)
    (Source)

See Bulwer-Lytton (1839).