Sharpening Quotes - Page 2

• I talked to people in the pencil industry and I talked to people as I was sharpening their pencils about the frustrations they have with pencils, so I really did do my research and I do know more about pencils than most people.

  David Rees

  Frustration, People, Research

  Source: therumpus.net

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• To see the butcher slap the steak before he laid it on the block, and give his knife a sharpening, was to forget breakfast instantly. It was agreeable too - it really was - to see him cut it off so smooth and juicy. There was nothing savage in the act, although the knife was large and keen; it was a piece of art, high art; there was delicacy of touch, clearness of tone, skilful handling of the subject, fine shading. It was the triumph of mind over matter; quite.

  Charles Dickens

  Art, Block, Food

  Charles Dickens (2006). “Martin Chuzzlewit: Easyread Comfort Edition”, p.24, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Leaving us with Eric is like hiring a babysitter who spends his time sharpening knives.

  Veronica Roth

  Knives, Leaving, Divergent

  Veronica Roth (2013). “The Divergent Series Complete Collection: Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant”, p.51, Harper Collins

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• The main courtyard was filled with warriors - mermen with fish tails from the waist down and human bodies from the waist up, except their skin was blue, which I'd never known before.Some were tending the wounded. Some were sharpening spears and swords. One passed us, swimming in a hurry. His eyes were bright green, like that stuff they put in glo-sticks, and his teeth were shark teeth. They don't show you stuff like that in "The Little Mermaid.

  Rick Riordan

  Eye, Warrior, Swimming

  Rick Riordan (2009). “Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian”, p.28, Penguin UK

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• You've been holding a machete waiting to cut your way through and into the place called Future. You have waited and waited and now this knife has grown dull. But now I am sending angelic hosts to sharpen your weapon and assist in cutting you through. Your tongue has even grown powerless in this last season because your faith and hope have been deferred. But this is NOW! I will put MY Word in your mouth. You will speak with a new vigor. I AM sharpening your tongue. Get ready, for all things are being sharpened. Get ready, for you will now cut and your way will open up.

  Chuck Pierce

  Cutting, Knives, Waiting

  "Chuck Pierce and Keith Miller: 'All Things are Being Sharpened!' AND 'Blaze Miracle Paths Everywhere You Go!'". www.elijahlist.com. May 8, 2010.

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• The freeway is the last frontier. It is unsurpassed as a training ground for the sharpening of survival skills.

  Sheila Ballantyne

  Skills, Survival, Training

  Sheila Ballantyne (1975). “Norma Jean, the termite queen”, Doubleday Books

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• Images at their passionate and truthful best are as powerful as words can ever be. If they alone cannot bring change, they can at least provide and understanding mirror of man's actions, thereby sharpening human awareness and awakening conscience.

  Cornell Capa

  Powerful, Men, Mirrors

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• Companies get into grooves and they keep sharpening what they are doing, when in fact what they really need to do sometimes is to stop and do something completely differently.

  Scott D. Anthony

  Needs, Facts, Sometimes

  Source: bobmorris.biz

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• I think Broadway is good for sharpening your skills. It's the best for really reaching the zenith of your talent. You go so far and reach the peak of it and you say, "Maybe this is the best performance I can do."

  Michael Jackson

  Thinking, Skills, Zenith

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• The weapons that were once outside sharpening themselves on war are now indoors there, in the fortress, fragile in glass cases; Why is it (I'm thinking of the careful moulding round the stonework archways) that in this time, such elaborate defences keep things that are no longer (much) worth defending?

  Margaret Atwood

  War, Thinking, Glasses

  Margaret Atwood (1987). “Selected Poems: 1965-1975”, p.20, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The People's Liberation Army should play the role of shock troops, overcoming fatigue and sharpening vigilance to make new contributions.

  Jiang Zemin

  Army, Play, People

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• The broad effects which can be obtained by punishment in man and beast, are the increase of fear, the sharpening of the sense of cunning, the mastery of the desires; so it is that punishment tames man, but does not make him "better.".

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Men, Desire, Doe

  Friedrich Nietzsche “Delphi Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche (Illustrated): Friedrich Nietzsche”, Delphi Classics

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• I'm a good neurosugeon. That's not a boast but a way of acknowledging the innate ability God has given to me. Beginning with determination and using my gifted hands, I went on for training and sharpening for my skills.

  Benjamin Carson

  Determination, Hands, Skills

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• Invention is activity of mind, as fire is air in motion; a sharpening of the spiritual sight, to discern hidden aptitudes.

  Martin Farquhar Tupper

  Spiritual, Fire, Sight

  Martin Farquhar Tupper (1839). “Proverbial philosophy: a book of thoughts and arguments”, p.216

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• I'd like to thank Sony for their gracious hospitality, and for not repeatedly punching me in the face. If I seem a little nervous, it's because Kevin Butler was introduced to me backstage as the VP of sharpening things.

  Gabe Newell

  Kevin, Littles, Faces

  Portal 2 Comes to PS3 Sony Press Conference e3 2010, www.youtube.com. June 17, 2010.

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• Of course, when we got home, we found that Dagda had peed on my down comforter. He had also eaten part of Mom's maidenhair fern and barfed it up on the carpet. Then he had apparently worked himself into a frenzy sharpening his ting by amazingly effective claws on the armrest of my dad's favorite chair. Now he was asleep on a pillow, curled up like a fuzzy little snail. "God, he's so cute," I said, shaking my head.

  Cate Tiernan

  Cute, Mom, Dad

  Cate Tiernan (2007). “Blood Witch: Book Three”, p.39, Penguin

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• I couldn’t help but think about school and everything else ending. I liked standing just outside the couches and watching them—it was a kind of sad I didn’t mind, and so I just listened, letting all the happiness and the sadness of this ending swirl around in me, each sharpening the other. For the longest time, it felt kind of like my chest was cracking open, but not precisely in an unpleasant way.

  John Green

  Real, School, Sadness

  John Green (2013). “Paper Towns”, p.215, A&C Black

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• It always struck Fire, the physical affection between these siblings, who as often as not were at each other's throats over one thing or another. She liked the way the four of them shifted and changed shape, bumping and clanging against one another, sharpening each other's edges and then smoothing them down again, and somehow always finding the way to fit together.

  Kristin Cashore

  Sibling, Fire, Together

  Kristin Cashore (2009). “Fire”, p.96, Hachette UK

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• The healthy being craves an occasional wildness, a jolt from normality, a sharpening of the edge of appetite, his own little festival of Saturnalia, a brief excursion from his way of life.

  Robert Morrison MacIver

  Success, Stress, Healthy

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• But novels are never about what they are about; that is, there is always deeper, or more general, significance. The author may not be aware of this till she is pretty far along with it. A novel's whole pattern is rarely apparent at the outset of writing, or even at the end; that is when the writer finds out what a novel is about, and the job becomes one of understanding and deepening or sharpening what is already written. That is finding the theme.

  Diane Johnson

  Jobs, Writing, Understanding

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• There is a flickering spark in us all which, if struck at just the right age...can light the rest of our lives, elevating our ideals, deepening our tolerance, and sharpening our appetite for knowledge about the rest of the world. Educational and cultural exchanges...provide a perfect opportunity for this precious spark to grow, making us more sensitive and wiser international citizens through our careers.

  Ronald Reagan

  Educational, Opportunity, Careers

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• In an age when other fantastically speedy, widespread media are triumphing, and running the risk of flattening all communication onto a single, homogenous surface, the function of literature is communication between things that are different simply because they are different, not blunting but even sharpening the differences between them, following the true bent of written language.

  Italo Calvino

  Running, Communication, Differences

  "Six Memos for the Next Millennium". Book by Italo Calvino. Translated by Patrick Creagh, 1996.

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• My sisters and I stand, arms around each other, laughind and wiping the tears from each others eyes. The flash of the Polaroid goes off and my family hands me the snapshot. My sisters and I watch quietly together, eager to see what develops. Ghe grey-greensurface changes to the bright colors of our three images, sharpening and deepening all at once. And although we don't speak, I know we all see it: Together we look like our mother. Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in suprise to see, her long-cherished wish.

  Amy Tan

  Mother, Eye, Hands

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• The first bowl sleekly moistened throat and lips, The second banished all my loneliness The third expelled the dullness from my mind, Sharpening inspiration gained from all the books I've read. The fourth brought forth light perspiration, Dispersing a lifetimes troubles through my pores. The fifth bowl cleansed every atom of my being. The sixth has made me kin to the Immortals. This seventh... I can take no more.

  Lu Tong

  Loneliness, Book, Inspiration

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• I play around with my Japanese Garden. Since Im half way to 70 today I need to start pruning trees and sharpening plants like an old fart.

  Jason Bateman

  Garden, Play, Tree

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