Are the tools without, which the carpenter puts forth his hands to, or are they and all the carpentry within himself; and would he not smile at the notion that chest or house is more than he? – C.A. Bartol, The Rising Faith, Chapter XI: Personality, 1873

Men have become the tools of their tools. – Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Lang or ye cut Balkland wood with a pen knife. – Scottish proverb, said when people work with improper tools, c.1500s

The carpenter dresses his plank, the tongue of his foreplane whistles its wild ascending lisp… – Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself,” Leaves of Grass