“A knife is sharpened on stone, steel is tempered by fire, but men must be sharpened by men.”
Louis L'Amour book The Walking Drum
Source: The Walking Drum (1984), Ch. 57
Herbert N. Casson cited in: Forbes magazine (1950) The Forbes scrapbook of Thoughts on the business of life. p. 236
1950s and later
“A knife is sharpened on stone, steel is tempered by fire, but men must be sharpened by men.”
Louis L'Amour book The Walking Drum
Source: The Walking Drum (1984), Ch. 57
“Yes, he's a prick, but he sure can hit. God Almighty, that man can hit!”
Babe Ruth (1895–1948) American baseball player
About Ty Cobb, a notoriously vicious player. Quoted in The Sporting News (12 July 1950); as actually published in The Sporting News, "prick" was replaced by "[censored]" — elsewhere, including Field of Screams: The Dark Underside of America's National Pastime (1994) the quote has appeared as "Ty Cobb is a prick." or sometimes "Cobb is a prick. But he sure can hit. God Almighty, that man can hit."
Floyd Mayweather Jr. (1977) American boxer
About Oscar de la Hoya, as quoted in Forbes http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/02/20/ap3446524.html (2007). <br class="br">2000s, 2007
Theodore Parker (1810–1860) abolitionist
Ten Sermons of Religion (1853), III : Of Justice and the Conscience https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ten_Sermons_of_Religion/Of_Justice_and_the_Conscience <br class="br">Context: Justice is moral temperance in the world of men. It keeps just relations between men; one man, however little, must not be sacrificed to another, however great, to a majority, or to all men. It holds the balance betwixt nation and nation, for a nation is but a larger man; betwixt a man and his family, tribe, nation, race; between mankind and God. It is the universal regulator which coordinates man with man, each with all, — me with the ten hundred millions of men, so that my absolute rights and theirs do not interfere, nor our ultimate interests ever clash, nor my eternal welfare prove antagonistic to the blessedness of all or any one. I am to do justice, and demand that of all, — a universal human debt, a universal human claim.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, NY http://www.trsite.org/content/pages/speaking-loudly (October 1897) <br class="br">1890s
L. K. Samuels (1951) American writer
Source: Ferret: The Reluctant King (2020), p. 216