Whetstone Quotes

In going where you have to go, and doing what you have to do, and seeing what you have to see, you dull and blunt the instrument you write with. But I would rather have it bent and dulled and know I had to put it on 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)
The finest edge is made with the blunt whetstone.
John Lyly
There is no such whetstone, to sharpen a good wit and encourage a will to learning, as is praise.
Roger Ascham
As one sharpens a knife on a whetstone, the brain can be sharpened on dull objects of thought. Every form of assiduous thinking has its value.
Stanislaw Ulam
What nation on earth could have maintained the semblance of civilization, the spirit or the customs of their forefathers, during so many centuries of overwhelming depression, but one of such singular character as the Rajpoot?... Rajast'han exhibits the sole example in the history of mankind, of a people withstanding every outrage barbarity could inflict, or human nature sustain, from a foe whose religion commands annihilation; and bent to the earth, yet rising buoyant from the pressure, and making calamity a whetstone to courage.... Not an iota of their religion or customs have they lost....
James Tod
The devil is but a whetstone to sharpen the faith and patience of the saints.
Samuel Rutherford
I was so afraid that we would just keep colliding over and over again if we stayed together, and that eventually the impact would break me. But now I know I am like the blade and he is like the whetstone- I am too strong to break so easily, and I become better, sharper, every time I touch him.
Veronica Roth
Sharp it away, lad, sharp it away,” the burly guardsman said, making the blade skitter across the whetstone, "lest otherways ye'll be a girl afore ye're a man.
Tad Williams
The dullness of the fool is the whetstone of the wits.
William Shakespeare
Let the master praise him, and say, 'Here ye do well.' For, I assure you, there is no such whetstone to sharpen a good wit, and encourage a will to learning, as is praise.
Roger Ascham