If you keep your nose to the grindstone, you don't have any nose. — Les Wexner
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
Whether life grinds a man down or polishes him depends on what he's made of. — Kathryn Kuhlman
If it's one thing I know well is how to get my grind on. — Wiz Khalifa
It takes time, it's a grind. There are no shortcuts. You've got to grind and grind. — Mark Cuban
If you put in the work to sharpen the steel, it will eventually turn into needles. — Vietnamese Proverbs
A knife of the keenest steel requires the whetstone, and the wisest man needs advice. — Zoroaster
You've gotta learn to love the grind. Because life IS the grind. — John Calipari
It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out; it's the grain of sand in your shoe. — Robert W. Service
The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small — Greek Proverbs
The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak, became a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong. — Thomas Carlyle
[The Master] doesn't glitter like a jewel... [but is] as rugged and common as a stone. — Lao Tzu
Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small. — Friedrich von Logau
Constant dripping hollows out a stone. — Lucretius
Short Grindstone Quotes
Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us. — Thomas L. Holdcroft
Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us. — Thomas Holcroft
The world is a grindstone and life is your nose — Fred Allen
We are kept keen on the grindstone of pain and necessity. — H. G. Wells
Experience is a grindstone; and it is lucky for us, if we can get brightened by it, and not ground. — Josh Billings
I've been good about keeping my nose to the grindstone. — Andy Roddick
Keep your nose to the grindstone. It sharpens your boogers. — Steven Tyler
A dull ax never loves grindstones. — Henry Ward Beecher
A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose to the grindstone. — Benjamin Franklin
Life really is like a grindstone, in that it will either grind you down or polish you up. — Zig Ziglar
Whetstone Quotes
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
A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge. — George R. R. Martin
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
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
There is no such whetstone, to sharpen a good wit and encourage a will to learning, as is praise. — Roger Ascham
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
When you are constantly hearing offensive words and always have some irritating matter in mind, only then do you have a whetstone for character development. If you hear only what pleases you, and deal only with what thrills you, then you are burying your life in deadly poison. — Zicheng Hong
The devil is but a whetstone to sharpen the faith and patience of the saints.- — Samuel Rutherford
Whetstones are not themselves able to cut, but make iron sharp and capable of cutting. — Isocrates
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
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
Danger was the grindstone on which the swordsman whetted his spirit. Enemies were teachers in disguise. — Eiji Yoshikawa
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
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
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
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
It's tough trying to keep your feet on the ground, your head above the clouds, your nose to the grindstone, your shoulder to the wheel, your finger on the pulse, your eye on the ball and your ear to the ground. — Proverbs
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
Life is like a grindstone -- whether it wears you down or polishes you up depends on what you are made of. — Unknown
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
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
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
Someone receives a promotion, gets an important assignment, makes a major discovery, or moves into the president's office. He's lucky, an envious person remarks. He gets the breaks; they're always in his favor. In reality, luck or the breaks of life had little or nothing to do with it. So-called luck usually is found at the exact point where preparation meets opportunity. For a time, an individual may get ahead by pull, but eventually someone with push will displace him. Success is not due to a fortuitous concourse of stars at our birth, but to a steady trail of sparks from the grindstone of hard work each day. — Kenneth Hildebrand
Then you must tell 'em dat love ain't somethin' lak uh grindstone dat's de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything it touch. Love is lak de sea. It's uh movin' thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every shore. — Zora Neale Hurston
The Planned Parenthood 7" project is an example of us putting our noses to the grindstone on and trying to make a little difference. Working on that was my way of handling my own emotions about Donald Trump. I was talking about politics for so long, I just kind of ran out of juice on that. — Aaron Dessner
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
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
When I first graduated college, I told my parents I'd try to pursue comedy for the first year or two, and if it didn't work out, I'd put my nose to the grindstone and try to find a job somehow. I went to UCB, and it clicked with me. — Ben Schwartz
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
In Conclusion
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