“If you give a man a hammer, he thinks he can solve all problems by pounding. Well, God gave men penises….”

— Jacob M. Appel , Arborophilia

Arborophilia (2005)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Jacob M. Appel 27

American author, bioethicist, physician, lawyer and social … 1973

Abraham Kaplan (1918–1993) American philosopher

Source: "The Conduct of Inquiry", p. 28.
Context: In addition to the social pressures from the scientific community there is also at work a very human trait of individual scientist. I call it the law of the instrument, and it may be formulated as follows: Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding. It comes as no particular surprise to discover that a scientist formulates problems in a way which requires for their solution just those techniques in which he himself is especially skilled.

“Our problems are manmade — therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

1963, American University speech
Context: Let us examine our attitude toward peace itself. Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many think it unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable — that mankind is doomed — that we are gripped by forces we cannot control. We need not accept that view. Our problems are manmade — therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man's reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable — and we believe they can do it again.

“Even the humblest men have a strange reason behind greed. Every man thinks money solves problems - and every man thinks not just of himself, but his next three generations - there is a probability he will live to see those generations - and he wants to care for them in times of strife.”

Siddharth Katragadda (1972) Indian writer

page 73
Dark Rooms (2002)

“Man thinks that by thinking he will solve all the secrets of the universe. He forgets that he cannot possibly put the entire ocean into a bucket.”

Titon Rahmawan

“As will so often be the case when a men has a pen in his hand. It is like a club or sledge-hammer, — in using which, either for defence or attack, a man can hardly measure the strength of the blows he gives.”

Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) English novelist (1815-1882)

Source: An Autobiography (1883), Ch. 11

“As long as you're neurotic and crazy, he's great. But once he solves all your problems, he becomes the problem.”

Candace Bushnell book Sex and the City

Source: Sex and the City

“The problems confronting us should be faced with courage, with truth and understanding; as well as with the willingness to speak factually, with simplicity and with love in the effort to expose the truth and clarify the problems which must be solved. The opposing forces of entrenched evil must be routed before He for Whom all men wait, the Christ, can come.”

Alice A. Bailey (1880–1949) esoteric, theosophist, writer

Source: The Reappearance of the Christ (1948), Chapter VII

“Death solves all problems — no man, no problem.”

Joseph Stalin (1879–1953) General secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

This actually comes from the novel Children of the Arbat (1987) by Anatoly Rybakov. In his later book The Novel of Memories ( In Russian http://www.sakharov-center.ru/asfcd/auth/auth_pages.xtmpl?Key=18637&page=307) Rybakov admitted that he had no sources for such a statement.
Misattributed

“It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.”

Douglas Adams Life, the Universe and Everything

Source: Life, the Universe and Everything

“If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Man and the Gospel (1865) by Thomas Guthrie "and you may know how little God thinks of money by observing on what bad and contemptible characters he often bestows it."
“We may see the small Value God has for Riches, by the People he gives them to.” -- Alexander Pope (1727).
Misattributed
Variant: If you want to know what the Lord God thinks of money, just look at those to whom he gives it.

“If you give a man a hammer, he thinks he can solve all problems by pounding. Well, God gave men penises….”

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Jacob M. Appel 27

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