A Quote by Philip Pullman

The intentions of a tool are what it does. A hammer intends to strike, a vise intends to hold fast, a lever intends to lift. They are what it is made for. But sometimes a tool may have other uses that you don't know. Sometimes in doing what you intend, you also do what the knife intends, without knowing.

Philip Pullman

Quote Topics

Also Does Doing Fast Hammer Hold Hold Fast Intend Intentions Knife Know Knowing Lever Lift Made May Other Sometimes Strike Tool Uses Without

Quote Author

Philip Pullman
British - Writer
Born: October 19, 1946

Man, in his sensitivity, does not give names to animals he intends to eat but goes on giving names to children he intends to send to war.

Robert Breault

Man intends one thing, but Allah intends another.

Khalid ibn al-Walid

God intends no man to live in this world without working, but it seems to me no less evident that He intends every man to be happy in his work.

John Ruskin

No one starts a war--or rather, no one in his sense ought to do so--without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by the war and how he intends to conduct it.

Carl von Clausewitz

Every individual necessarily labors to render the annual revenue of society as great as he can. He generally neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. He intends only his own gain, and he is, in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was not part of his intention.

Adam Smith

There are people who say, "God is in complete control of everything that happens, and if the Earth is getting warmer, then maybe God intends that." Well, no. God intends for us to take responsibility for how we treat God's creation, and if we choose to use the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding our planet as an open sewer for 110-million tons of global-warming pollution every day, the consequences are attributable to us. And if you are a believer, as I am, I think God intends for us to open our eyes and take responsibility for the moral consequences of our actions.

Al Gore

Nature intends all men and women to be mental and spiritual giants, and does not intend that any one should follow the will of another.

Christian D. Larson

In the performance of an illocutionary act in the literal utterance of a sentence, the speaker intends to produce a certain effect by means of getting the hearer to recognize his intention to produce that effect; and furthermore, if he is using the words literally, he intends this recognition to be achieved in virtue of the fact that the rules for using the expressions he utters associate the expression with the production of that effect.

John Searle

Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you.

Parker J. Palmer

On the very instant that we know that our assailant intends us serious physical harm, we must work just as fast as we can.

Jeff Cooper

A man does not always choose what his guardian angel intends.

Thomas Aquinas

It is a principle of law, that a person intends to do that which is the natural effect of what he does.

Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough

If we say, as we do, that no one in this country intends for racism to lead to genocide, the effects of racism are genocidal, regardless of our intentions.