Proverbs requiring interpretation

Then there are those proverbs that really yield no meaning unless you spend time on interpreting them. Probably invented by the sort of people whom we all know. The sort who, when asked for advice, tell you something so ambiguous and esoteric, that you certainly feel that they are wise but have no clue about the wisdom that they have imparted. Like those books you proudly proclaim to have read and enjoyed, merely because you could not understand a thing and are too ashamed to admit it.

Take this "The pen is mightier than the sword", for example. It seems sort of ludicrous to assume that you can successfully repel someone attacking you with a sword by using a pen to parry his sword-strokes. So, what exactly does it mean? THAT you can wound a man far deeper with words than with a sword? Like you think being beheaded is better than being insulted? Then, what do you have to say to "Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never harm me"?

There are only three possibilities that I can think of. One is that a man wielding a pen can propagate ideas that can cause more destruction than a sword can. That, I think, has been proven amply in the past. A rabble-rouser is a far more evil person and capable of far more destruction than a mere armed bully. Especially bad are those who also believe that they are in the right and, more to the point, the ONLY people entrusted with the ONE great truth.

The second, of course, is that a man can, with a pen and, maybe, a helpful lawyer, can plunder more than he can with a sword. You doubt that? Even after all those numbers, the zeroes in which you are not yet done counting, representing the money that went down the maws of people, whose greed far exceeds your imagination?

The last possibility is that soldiers may win wars but it is the man who writes of the battle that ends up claiming the victory for who he pleases. If the facts are indisputable about who won the battle, the trick lies in making the winner win by cheating - and, thus, handing over the moral victory to the loser. So, yes, the pen proves mightier than the sword.

As you can see, this seemingly innocuous statement needs interpretation and, at the end of all that serious thinking, you still do not know exactly what the correct interpretation is. To compound the problem, we have the other proverb, that thumbs its nose at this proverb - "Action speaks louder than words". What now?

Well, of course, they explain that this means, for example, that someone professing friendship is one thing but someone displaying friendship is quite another - and the latter is a more dependable proclamation of friendliness than the former. What an idea! I would say that this is on the lines of "Empty vessels make the most noise" - which means, since Action speaks louder than Words, Action is more empty than words, since it makes more noise. No? So, you actually are happier with a person who 'Likes' your Facebook status (Action) than the person who writes a complimentary comment (Words). If you do, you belong in a museum and shall be sent there forthwith, the moment we find time to create a Museum app.

So, you see, there are always those proverbs which end up being "Six of one, half a dozen of the other". AND that sort of confusion between choices is, precisely, where you started out when you decided to take recourse to proverbs for advice. If this is not 'running all you can to stay in the same place' I do not know what is!

P.S : The Moonstone is, again, responsible - through her comment - for this bit of lunacy. She contributed the proverb, I contributed the lunacy!