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Tools Quotes

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Tools Quotes

“Even the best weapon is an unhappy tool, hateful to living things. So the follower of the Way stays away from it. Weapons are unhappy tools, not chosen by thoughtful people, to be used only when there is no choice, and with a calm, still mind, without enjoyment. To enjoy using weapons is to enjoy killing people, and to enjoy killing people is to lose your share in the common good. It is right that the murder of many people be mourned and lamented. It is right that a victor in war be received with funeral ceremonies.”

PeopleWayMindStillsWarUsedChoicesEnjoyLosesCommonShareWeaponsToolsMurderKillingCalmUnhappyChosenEnjoymentThoughtfulFollowersFuneralCeremonyLiving ThingsHatefulCommon Good
Book:Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way
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“Whenever someone who knows you disappears, you lose one version of yourself. Yourself as you were seen, as you were judged to be. Lover or enemy, mother or friend, those who know us construct us, and their several knowings slant the different facets of our characters like diamond-cutter's tools. Each such loss is a step leading to the grave, where all versions blend and end.”

KnowsDifferentEndsCharacterMotherLosesLossStepsEnemyKnowingFriendsLoversToolsDisappearGravesVersionsNovelistsJudgedDiamondConstructsFacetsPeople In Your LifeEssayistsCutters
Author:Salman Rushdie
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“Attention is love, what we must give children, mothers, fathers, pets, our friends, the news, the woes of others. What we want to change we curse and then pick up a tool. Bless whatever you can with eyes and hands and tongue. If you can't bless it, get ready to make it new.”

IfsWantGivingChildrenHandsEyeMotherFatherAttentionReadyNewsPicksToolsTongueCursePetBlessWoe
Book:The Art of Blessing the Day: Poems with a Jewish Theme
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“So you think that money is the root of all evil? [...] Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?”

ThinkingMenGivingMadeAbleValuesEvilForceWishMoneyDealsPrinciplesProduceTearsMaterialsProductsShapesToolsRootsClaimsTradeMaking MoneyGoodsValue Of MoneyMoney Is The Root Of All EvilMoney Is EvilMoochers
Book:For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)
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“I'm vile and perverted. I'm obsessed and deranged. I've existed for years but very little has changed. I'm the tool of the government and industry too. For I'm destined to rule and regulate you. You may think I'm pernicious, but you can't look away. I'll make you think I'm delicious with the stuff that I say. I'm the best you can get... have you guessed me yet? I'm the slime oozing out of your TV set.”

ThinkingYearsLooksMayLittlesGovernmentStuffChangedTvsIndustryToolsObsessedDeliciousDestinedMake You ThinkPerniciousDerangedSlime
Author:Frank Zappa
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“Her life her life had taken on the shape of a terrible mistake. She hadn't been given the proper tools to make a real life with, she decided, that was it. She'd been given a can of gravy and a hair-brush and told, "There you go." She'd stood there for years, blinking and befuddled, brushing the can with the brush.”

YearsRealGivenMistakeTakenHairTerribleShapesToolsDecidedReal LifeBrushesBrushingGravy
Book:The Collected Stories of Lorrie Moore
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“All we have to believe with is our senses, the tools we use to perceive the world: our sight, our touch, our memory. If they lie to us, then nothing can be trusted. And even if we do not believe, then still we cannot travel in any other way than the road our senses show us; and we must walk that road to the end.”

IfsWorldWayLoveBelieveStillsEndsPhilosophyUseShowsBodyLyingMemoriesWalksToolsSightMedicineSensesPerceiveTrustedOur MemoriesSomaAmerican Gods
Author:Neil Gaiman
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“my mind is a big hunk of irrevocable nothing which touch and taste and smell and hearing and sight keep hitting and chipping with sharp fatal tools in an agony of sensual chisels i perform squirms of chrome and ex -ecute strides of cobalt nevertheless i feel that i cleverly am being altered that i slightly am becoming something a little different, in fact myself hereupon helpless i utter lilac shrieks and scarlet bellowings”

FeelsMindLittlesDifferentFactsBigsBecomingTasteToolsSightHearingSmellSensualAgonyHittingNeverthelessHelplessExesAlteredStrideScarletIrrevocableLilacChiselsHunkChromeBecoming SomethingTaste And SmellCobalt
Author:e. e. cummings
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“That a thing made by hand, the work and thought of a single craftsman, can endure much longer than its maker, through centuries in fact, can survive natural catastrophe, neglect, and even mistreatment, has always filled me with wonder. Sometimes in museums, looking at a humble piece of pottery from ancient Persia or Pompeii, or a finely wrought page from a medieval illuminated manuscript toiled over by a nameless monk, or a primitive tool with a carved handle, I am moved to tears. The unknown life of the maker is evanescent in its brevity, but the work of his or her hands and heart remains.”

HeartMadeSometimesFactsHandsNaturalWonderPiecesCenturyTearsPagesToolsRemainsMovedFilledEndureAncientHumbleHandleNeglectMakersMuseumsPrimitiveCatastropheMonkMedievalManuscriptsBrevityNamelessCraftsmanPotteryPersiaMistreatmentPompeii
Author:Susan Vreeland
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“I stand here on the summit of the mountain. I lift my head and I spread my arms. This, my body and spirit, this is the end of the quest. I wished to know the meaning of all things. I am the meaning. I wished to find a warrant for being. I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction. Neither am I the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a sacrifice on their alters.”

KnowsNeedsMayMeanEndsUseBodySpiritWishSacrificeArmsMountainToolsAll ThingsSpreadAccomplishLiftsServantQuestsSummitSanctionsWarrants
Author:Ayn Rand
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“And my haunting instinct that somehow good was not merely a tool to be used, but a relic to be guarded, like the goods from Crusoe's ship--even that had been the wild whisper of something originally wise, for, according to Christianity, we were indeed the survivors of a wreck, the crew of a golden ship that had gone down before the beginning of the world.”

WorldUsedChristianityGoneWiseToolsInstinctShipsGoldenGoodsSurvivorCrewHauntingWrecksGuardedRelics
Book:The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton
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“Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society's definition of acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in the crucibles of difference - those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are black, who are older - know that survival is not an academic skill...For the master's tools will not dismantle the master's house. They will never allow us to bring about genuine change.”

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Author:Audre Lorde
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“Use them with care, and use them with respect as to the transformations they can achieve, and you have an extraordinary research tool. Go banging about with a psychedelic drug for a Saturday night turn-on, and you can get into a really bad place, psychologically. Know what you're using, decide just why you're using it, and you can have a rich experience. They're not addictive, and they're certainly not escapist, either, but they're exceptionally valuable tools for understanding the human mind, and how it works.”

KnowsMindHumansUseCareNightTurnsUnderstandingRichAchieveDrugResearchToolsTransformationExtraordinaryValuableHuman MindSaturdayTurn-onPsychedelicSaturday NightBangingEscapistsPsychedelic Drugs
Author:Alexander Shulgin
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“Economic power is exercised by means of a positive, by offering men a reward, an incentive, a payment, a value; political power is exercised by means of a negative, by the threat of punishment, injury, imprisonment, destruction. The businessman's tool is values; the bureaucrat's tool is fear.”

MenMeanPoliticalValuesLibertyEconomicCapitalismNegativeEconomicsToolsDestructionThreatRewardsPunishmentInjuryOfferingBusinessmanIncentivesPaymentPolitical PowerBureaucratsImprisonmentEconomic Power
Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z
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“If you stumble over mere believability, what are you living for? Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe? Reason is excellent for getting food, clothing and shelter. Reason is the very best tool kit. Nothing beats reason for keeping tigers away. But be excessively reasonable and you risk throwing out the universe with the bathwater”

IfsBelieveHardReasonProblemLife IsUniverseAsksLove IsRiskLoversBeatsToolsScientistMereBelieverExcellentReasonableThrowingClothingsShelterTigersLife Is HardHard To BelieveLove Is HardBelievability
Author:Yann Martel
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“As a technology, the book is like a hammer. That is to say, it is perfect: a tool ideally suited to its task. Hammers can be tweaked and varied but will never go obsolete. Even when builders pound nails by the thousand with pneumatic nail guns, every household needs a hammer. Likewise, the bicycle is alive and well. It was invented in a world without automobiles, and for speed and range it was quickly surpassed by motorcycles and all kinds of powered scooters. But there is nothing quaint about bicycles. They outsell cars.”

WorldNeedsWellsKindBookPerfectTechnologyAliveCarThousandGunToolsTasksSpeedAll KindsRangePoundsHouseholdNailsHammersAutomobileBicycleMotorcycleObsoleteBuilderQuaintScooters
Author:James Gleick
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“Hindsight, I think, is a useless tool. We, each of us, are at a place in our lives because of innumerable circumstances, and we, each of us, have a responsibility (if we do not like where we are) to move along life's road, to find a better path if this one does not suit, or to walk happily along this one if it is indeed our life's way. Changing even the bad things that have gone before would fundamentally change who we are, and whether or not that would be a good thing, I believe, it is impossible to predict. So I take my past experiences... and try to regret nothing. -Drizzt Do'urden”

IfsThinkingWayTryingBelieveDoeWould BePastMovingI BelieveWalksResponsibilityGonePathOur LivesImpossibleRegretCircumstancesToolsGood ThingsSuitsUselessWho We AreBad ThingsMy PastHindsightPast ExperiencesDrizztRegret NothingDrizzt Do Urden
Author:R. A. Salvatore
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“There must be only three supreme values which govern a person's life: Reason, Purpose, and Self-esteem. Reason, as his only tool of knowledge--Purpose, as his choice of the happiness which that tool must proceed to achieve--Self-esteem, as his inviolate certainty that his mind is competent to think and his person is worthy of happiness, which means: is worthy of living. These three values imply and require all of man's virtues, and all his virtues pertain to the relation of existence and consciousness: rationality, independence, integrity, honesty, justice, productiveness, pride.”

ThinkingMenMindMeanPersonsSelfReasonPurposeValuesChoicesThreeJusticeExistenceConsciousnessVirtueAchieveSelf EsteemHonestyPrideIntegrityToolsRelationIndependenceWorthySupremeEsteemCertaintyRationalityCompetentHonesty Integrity
Author:Ayn Rand
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“I suppose every one must have reflected how primeval and how poetical are the things that one carries in one's pocket; the pocket-knife, for instance, the type of all human tools, the infant of the sword. Once I planned to write a book of poems entirely about things in my pockets. But I found it would be too long; and the age of the great epics is past.”

WritingHumansLongBookWould BeAgePastFoundTypeToolsInstancePocketsCarrieKnivesEpicInfantPrimeval
Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
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“Man's mind is his basic tool of survival. Life is given to him, survival is not. His body is given to him, its sustenance is not. His mind is given to him, its content is not. To remain alive, he must act, and before he can act he must know the nature and purpose of his action. He cannot obtain his food without a knowledge of food and of the way to obtain it. He cannot dig a ditch-or build a cyclotron-without a knowledge of his aim and of the means to achieve it. To remain alive, he must think”

ThinkingKnowsMenWayMindMeanBodyActionLife IsPurposeGivenAliveAchieveSurvivalToolsAimSustenance
Book:For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition)
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“It's funny: I always imagined when I was a kid that adults had some kind of inner toolbox full of shiny tools: the saw of discernment, the hammer of wisdom, the sandpaper of patience. But then when I grew up I found that life handed you these rusty bent old tools - friendships, prayer, conscience, honesty - and said 'do the best you can with these, they will have to do'. And mostly, against all odds, they do.”

KindSaidKidsFoundPrayerSawsHonestyGrewGrew UpConscienceAdultsToolsOddsBentHammersDo The BestDiscernmentAgainst All OddsAgainst The OddsToolboxSandpaper
Book:Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
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