Axe

An axe (sometimes ax in American English; see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood, to harvest timber, as a weapon, and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The axe has many forms and specialised uses but generally consists of an axe head with a handle, or helve.

Quotes

• It is impossible to sharpen a pencil with a blunt axe. It is equally vain to try to do it with ten blunt axes instead.
  • Edsger W. Dijkstra, "How do we tell truths that might hurt?" (1975). Published in ACM SIGPLAN Notices 17:5 (May 1982), pp. 13–15

• The woodman's axe lies free,
  And the reaper's work is done.
  • Felicia Hemans, "Evening Song of the Tyrolese Peasants", st. 1, in Forget Me Not for 1829 (1828) p. 137

• Some wield the sounding axe; the dodder'd oaks
  Divide, obedient to the forceful strokes.
  • Homer, Odyssey, bk. 20, translated by Alexander Pope (1725)

• Whenever there is excess, an axe remedies it!
  • Sumerian proverb, Collection XVIII at ETCSL

Hatchet

• Hatchet, n. A young axe, known among Indians as a Thomashawk.
  "O bury the hatchet, irascible Red,
  For peace is a blessing," the White Man said.
  The Savage concurred, and that weapon interred,
  With imposing rites, in the White Man's head.
    John Lukkus
  • Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

External links

• "Axe" . Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
• "Axe" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
• "Axe" . The American Cyclopædia. 1879.
• "Axe". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.

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