Quevedo satirical work, 1645
Fishburn and Hughes: "A satirical and philosophical work by Quevedo, whose attack on the government of Philip IV led to his banishment. The work is a 'moral fantasy' in which people from different nations and professions face a tribunal of Gods. The passage likened to Don Quixote's well-known debate 'against letters and in favour of arms' is the passage describing the Greeks as 'rich in books and poor in triumphs'. Quevedo regrets the lack of bullets, complaining that all the lead has been used to make letter-moulds for printing more books. ‘Yet,' he argues, 'it was our battles that gave us our empire and our victories.' The most pungent line, and the one which most concisely expresses the spirit of the debate, is 'Nunca se juntó el cuchillo a la pluma que éste no la cortase' ('Never did the sword join the pen without the one cutting the other'), which denies the compatibility of the world of letters with the world of arms (cf. ed. Zaragoza, 1651,125-8)." (93)