Grindstone Quotes

• In going where you have to go, and doing what you have to do, and seeing what you have to see, you'll dull and blunt the instrument you write with. But I would rather have it bent and dull and know I had to put it to the grindstone again and hammer it into shape and put a whetstone to it, and know that I had something to write about, than to have it bright and shining and nothing to say, or smooth and well-oiled in the closet, but unused.

  Ernest Hemingway

  Writing, Shining, Hammers

  Ernest Hemingway (2014). “Complete Short Stories Of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Edition”, p.23, Simon and Schuster

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• Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us.

  Thomas Holcroft

  Life, Attitude, Weight Loss

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• First, say to yourself what you would be; then do what you have to do. Life is a grindstone. Whether it wears you down or polishes you up depends on what YOU are made of.

  Zig Ziglar

  Firsts, Would Be, Life Is

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• The world is a grindstone and life is your nose

  Fred Allen

  Life, Noses, World

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• We are kept keen on the grindstone of pain and necessity.

  H. G. Wells

  Pain, Adaptation, Time Machine

  H. G. Wells (2015). “The Time Machine”, p.45, eKitap Projesi

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• A grindstone that had not grit in it, how long would it take to sharpen an ax? And affairs that had not grit in them, how long would they take to make a man?

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Time, War, Men

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• So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own business; but to these we must add frugality if we would make our industry more certainly successful. A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose all his life to the grindstone, and die not worth a grout at last.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Business, Successful, Men

  Benjamin Franklin, William Temple Franklin, William Duane (1834). “Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin”, p.478

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• A dull axe never loves grindstones, but a keen workman does; and he puts his tool on them in order that it may be sharp. And men do not like grinding; but they are dull for the purposes which God designs to work out with them, and therefore He is grinding them.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Men, Order, Discipline

  Henry Ward Beecher (1866). “Royal truths”, p.195

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• One of the few graces of getting old - and God knows there are few graces - is that if you've worked hard and kept your nose to the grindstone, something happens: The body gets old but the creative mechanism is refreshed, smoothed and oiled and honed. That is the grace. That is what's happening to me.

  Maurice Sendak

  Creative, Grace, Noses

  "Interview: Why Is Maurice Sendak So Incredibly Angry?". Interview with Leonard S. Marcus, Parenting Magazine (October 1993); later quoted in Leonard S. Marcus "Ways of Telling: Conversations on the Art of the Picture Book" (p. 181), 2002.

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• Experience is a grindstone; and it is lucky for us, if we can get brightened by it, and not ground.

  Josh Billings

  Inspirational, Life, Experience

  Josh Billings (1972). “Uncle Sam's Uncle Josh: Or, Josh Billings on Practically Everything, Distilled from Josh's Rum and Tansy New England Wit by Donald Day”

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• Danger was the grindstone on which the swordsman whetted his spirit. Enemies were teachers in disguise.

  Eiji Yoshikawa

  Teacher, Enemy, Spirit

  Eiji Yoshikawa, Charles S. Terry (1989). “Way of Life and Death”, Pocket

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• A dull ax never loves grindstones.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Boredom, Dull

  Henry Ward Beecher (1866). “Royal truths”, p.195

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• The faith that anyone could move from rags to riches - with enough guts and gumption, hard work and nose to the grindstone - was once at the core of the American Dream.

  Robert Reich

  Dream, Moving, Hard Work

  "The Meaning of a Decent Society" by Robert Reich, www.huffingtonpost.com. December 19, 2013.

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• I've been good about keeping my nose to the grindstone.

  Andy Roddick

  Noses

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• A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose to the grindstone.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Money, Men, Noses

  Benjamin Franklin, William Temple Franklin (1809). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin ...”, p.239

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• Realizing how often ingenious speculation in the complex biological world has led nowhere and how often the real advances in biology as well as in chemistry, physics and astronomy have kept within the bounds of mechanistic interpretation, we geneticists should rejoice, even with our noses on the grindstone (which means both eyes on the objectives), that we have at command an additional means of testing whatever original ideas pop into our heads.

  Thomas Hunt Morgan

  Real, Mean, Eye

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• The great grindstone, Earth, had turned when Mr. Lorry looked out again, and the sun was red on the courtyard. But, the lesser grindstone stood alone there in the calm morning air, with red upon it that the sun had never give, and would never take away.

  Charles Dickens

  Morning, Air, Giving

  Charles Dickens (2004). “The Shorter Novels of Charles Dickens”, p.837, Wordsworth Editions

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• Life really is like a grindstone, in that it will either grind you down or polish you up.

  Zig Ziglar

  Grind, Personal Development, Polish

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• If you keep your nose to the grindstone, you don't have any nose.

  Les Wexner

  Noses, Ifs

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• We encounter the grinding wheels that sharpen our mental blades many places in life. Adversity, school, parents, spiritual guides, books, experience are all sharpening teachers. As we grow older, to stay sharp we must find new grindstones to whet and sharpen our potential and keep us at our brightest, most penetrating best.

  Rob Kall

  Spiritual, Teacher, Book

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• Opinions, theories, and systems pass by turns over the grindstone of time, which at first gives them brilliancy and sharpness, but finally wears them out.

  Antoine Rivarol

  Time, Giving, Firsts

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• I'm just having fun making jokes and writing books. But you see me once a year, I come on when I have a new book out, but basically, I've got my nose to the grindstone and I'm doing what I'm supposed to do in life, which is make stories.

  T.C. Boyle

  Fun, Book, Writing

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• It's almost comical that astronauts are stereotyped as daredevils and cowboys. As a rule, we're highly methodical and detail-oriented. Our passion isn't for thrills but for the grindstone, and pressing our noses to it.

  Chris Hadfield

  Work, Passion, Cowboy

  Chris Hadfield (2013). “An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth”, p.45, Pan Macmillan

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• I can't abide to see men throw away their tools i' that way, the minute the clock begins to strike, as if they took no pleasure i' their work, and was afraid o' doing a stroke too much.... I hate to see a man's arms drop down as if he was shot, before the clock's fairly struck, just as if he'd never a bit o' pride and delight in's work. The very grindstone 'ull go on turning a bit after you loose it.

  George Eliot

  Work, Hate, Pride

  George Eliot (2005). “Four Novels of George Eliot”, p.19, Wordsworth Editions

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• Keep your nose to the grindstone. It sharpens your boogers.

  Steven Tyler

  Noses, Aerosmith, Boogers

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