Quotes About Craftsmanship

A builder is like a little god - somebody who does things, doesn't just draw things.

He once said that I ride words bareback.

Well, you know, the original banjos were all handmade instruments. Gourd - it would be made with gourds and whatever, you know, materials would have been around. And, you know, first hundred years of its existence, the banjo's known as a plantation instrument, as a black instrument.

soft Corinthian leather

had liked it so well that she had made

Michelangelo had said that the successful completion of a great mosaic must rest upon the infinite design in the placement of a single tile.

It's not Jane Austen, it's not Henry James. But this writer, or writers, well, they're pretty damn good too.

Swoopers write a story quickly, higgledy-piggledy, crinkum-crankum, any which way. Then they go over it again painstakingly, fixing everything that is just plain awful or doesn't work. Bashers go one sentence at a time, getting it exactly right just before they go on to the next one.

I liked to put my hands on work that had been blessed by good minds and the passing of time.

Machinery only cared about what a man knew and what he could do with his hands

Playing the violin or writing a poem are special ways of paying attention. They are acts at once small and great. Although only one person can commit them, they require orderly marshallings of countless and diverse forces, something like the great landing of armies in Normandy, but incalculably bigger and more complicated.

By the time an ash has made a baseball bat, a chestnut has made a dresser.

Chestnut is quick: By the time an ash has made a baseball bat, a chestnut has made a dresser.

Science grew out of the craft tradition

Craftsmanship names an enduring, basic human impulse, the desire to do a job well for its own sake.

To the absolutist in every craftsman, each imperfection is a failure; to the practitioner, obsession with perfection seems a perception for failure.

We are more likely to fail as craftsmen due to our inability to organize obsession than because of our lack of ability.

you can't understand how wine is made simply by drinking lots of it.

The carpenter, lab technician, and conductor are all craftsmen because they are dedicated to good work for its own sake.

Developments in high technology reflect an ancient model for craftsmanship, but the reality on the ground is that people who aspire to be good craftsmen are depressed, ignored, or misunderstood by social institutions. These ills are complicated because few institutions set out to produce unhappy workers. People seek refuge in inwardness when material engagement proves empty; mental anticipation is privileged above concrete encounter; standards of quality in work separate design from execution.

Good craftsmanship implies socialism. The workings of a modern Japanese auto plant or a Linux chat room might have expanded their sympathy for collaboration of other sorts, but still, all three disputed the pursuit of quality simply as a means to profit.

Did y'all know that furniture makers ran some of the first funeral homes? Because they were the ones who built the coffins?" "Fascinating." Parker was all dignified solemnity. "And such a grave undertaking." He ducked as Ashley's popcorn sailed at his head.

You cannot be a great writer in a shop where words are sold in tens and twenties.

Hephaestus glowered up at us. "I didn't make you, did I?" Uh," Annabeth said, "no, sir." Good," the god grumbled. "Shoddy workmanship.