a bad workman always blames his tools

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English

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Alternative forms

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Proverb

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a bad workman always blames his tools

  1. It is not the tools we use that make us good, but rather how we employ them.
    • 1881, John Wurtle Lovell, “Jacula Prudentum”, in The Works of George Herbert in Prose and Verse[1], New York, page 440:
      • Never had ill workman good tools.
    • 1881, John Wurtle Lovell, “Jacula Prudentum”, in The Works of George Herbert in Prose and Verse[2], New York, page 454:
      • An ill labourer quarrels with his tools.
  2. Upon failure, it is easier to blame the tools used rather than how they were employed.

Translations

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