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

Ultimately, literature is nothing but carpentry…. Both are very hard work. Writing something is almost as hard as making a table. With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood. Both are full of tricks and techniques. Basically very little magic and a lot of hard work… – Gabriel Garcia Marquez, interview, The Paris Review, 1981

A knotty piece of timber must have smooth wedges. – English proverb quoted by John Ray, 1670

All wood is worth logs. – English proverb quoted by Cotgrave, 1611