Lessons in reasoning and debate at Oxford

In the few fragments that remain of his own story, he records that he learned but three things in two years at Oxford. The first, on which he placed the greatest value, was that “Yea” might be turned into “Nay” and vice versa if a sufficient quantity of wordage was applied to the matter. The second was that in any argument, the victor is always right, and the third that though the pen is mightier than the sword, the sword speaks louder and stronger at any given moment.

Leonard Wibberley, The Mouse That Roared (Leonard Wibberly Books digital ed., 2015), p. 5 (orig. pub. 1955 as "The Wrath of Grapes"). (The passage is about Roger Fenwick, who founded the Duchy of Grand Fenwick in 1370.)