Whetstone Quotes & Sayings

A whetstone is no carving instrument, And yet it maketh sharp the carving tool; And if you see my efforts wrongly spent, Eschew that course and learn out of my school; For thus the wise may profit by the fool, And edge his wit, and grow more keen and wary, For wisdom shines opposed to its contrary. — Geoffrey Chaucer

Christ's enemies are but breaking their own heads in pieces, upon the Rock laid in Zion; and the stone is not removed out of its place. Faith hath cause to take courage from our very afflictions; the devil is but a whetstone to sharpen the faith and patience of the saints. I know that he but heweth and polisheth stones, all this time, for the new Jerusalem. — Samuel Rutherford

A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge. — George R R Martin

My mind is my weapon. My brother has his sword, King Robert has his warhammer, and I have my mind ... and a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge. Tyrion — George R R Martin

Then the woman in the bed sat up and looked about her with wild eyes; and the oldest of the old men said: 'Lady, we have come to write down the names of the immortals,' and at his words a look of great joy came into her face. Presently she, began to speak slowly, and yet eagerly, as though she knew she had but a little while to live, and, in English, with the accent of their own country; and she told them the secret names of the immortals of many lands, and of the colours, and odours, and weapons, and instruments of music and instruments of handicraft they held dearest; but most about the immortals of Ireland and of their love for the cauldron, and the whetstone, and the sword, and the spear, and the hills of the Shee, and the horns of the moon, and the Grey Wind, and the Yellow Wind, and the Black Wind, and the Red Wind. ("The Adoration of the Magi") — W.B.Yeats

The dullness of the fool is the whetstone of the wits. — William Shakespeare

Now I know that grief is a whetstone that sharpens all your love, all your happiest memories, into blades that tear you apart from within. — Claudia Gray

The finest edge is made with the blunt whetstone. — John Lyly

But now I know I am like the blade and he is like the whetstone - — Veronica Roth

Objectively (i.e., in theory) there is utterly no conflict between morality and politics. But subjectively (in the self-seeking inclinations of men, which, because they are not based on maxims of reason, must not be called the [sphere of] practice [Praxis]) this conflict will always remain, as well it should; for it serves as the whetstone of virtue, whose true courage (according to the principle, "tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito")35 in the present case consists not so much in resolutely standing up to the evils and sacrifices that must be taken on; rather, it consists in detecting, squarely facing, and conquering the deceit of the evil principle in ourselves, which is the more dangerously devious and treacherous because it excuses all our transgressions with an appeal to human nature's frailty. — Immanuel Kant

I mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone. - Tyrion Lannister — George R R Martin

And hey, it's nothing personal.
It's just that a long time ago, when the men taught me my body
was a whetstone and they wanted nothing more than to be
sharpened on it, I decided I needed to save myself.
You never know, maybe I'll see you around sometime.
Until then, I hope Heaven's as beautiful as you said it'd be. — Meggie Royer

I find some small, twisted comfort in thinking that perhaps we used each other. Him, for a glimpse into what it would be like to live a life entirely different from the one he'd been raised to desire, and me for the steady diet of angst and emotional damage that seemed to make me better, sharper, like a sword against a whetstone.
I was his intellectual escape from a long parade of pretty, empty girls... and he was my drug of choice -- unhealthy, probably lethal, but ultimately so addictive it was hard to turn away.
The problem, of course, with this theory of mutual exploitation, is that it is the deepest of lies. There was nothing equal or mutual about the way we used each other. I barely scratched his surface while he sliced me limb from limb.
There's no comfort in that. None at all. — Julie Johnson

The outbreath is like a whetstone, and the mind is like the knife or sword that is being sharpened on that stone. When you sharpen a knife, you draw the blade of the knife across the sharpening stone. Following your outbreath is like drawing the blade of mind across the breath. Then — Chogyam Trungpa

Somedays, if bitterness were a whetstone, I could be sharp as grief. — Audre Lorde

He picked up three long fresh stalks of timothy and braided them together. He upended the scythe and thrust the handle deep enough into the soft earth so it would stand upright. He tied the braided grass to one of the grips and slipped the whetstone into the loops so it would stay. Then he walked off into the woods. — Theodore Sturgeon

Books are to the mind as the whetstone for the knives. — Aman Jassal

Missing someone is the whetstone that sharpens want. — Leah Raeder

Now I know grief is a whetstone that sharpens all your love, all your happiest memories, into blades that tear you apart from within. Something has been torn out from inside me that will never be filled up, not ever, no matter how long I live. They say "time heals," but even now, less than a week after my father's death, I know that's a lie. What people really mean is that eventually you'll get used to the pain. You'll forget who you were without it; you'll forget what you looked like without your scars. — Claudia Gray

The devil is but a whetstone to sharpen the faith and patience of the saints.- — Samuel Rutherford

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,

A knife of the keenest steel requires the whetstone, and the wisest man needs advice. — Zoroaster

Death sat in His garden, running a whetstone along the edge of His scythe. It was already so sharp that any passing breeze that blew across it was sliced smoothly into two puzzled zephyrs, — Terry Pratchett

I will perform the function of a whetstone, which is about to restore sharpness to iron, though itself unable to cut.
[Lat., Fungar vice cotis, acutum
Reddere quae ferrum valet, exsors ipsi secandi.] — Horace

A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone. — George R R Martin

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

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

The more media trailed him, the more space he tried to create. He cultivated alienation and used it as a whetstone to stay sharp. — Bonnie D. Ford

My brother has his sword, King Robert has his warhammer and I have my mind ... and a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone if it is to keep its edge. That's why I read so much Jon Snow. — George R R Martin

The morning will brighten the day, darkness gives way to light. The man awakens and sharpens his knife on the whetstone of success. — Kristian Goldmund Aumann

You travel with a whetstone on your arm? (Kiara)
You don't ever want to kill someone with a dull knife. It takes too long to sever their arteries, or puncture organs, and it makes it even messier than normal. (Nykyrian) — Sherrilyn Kenyon

A whetstone, though it cannot cut, may sharpen a knife that will. — Charles Haddon Spurgeon