rough-hew

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

It also engages the idea that some things may be hard-wired into our blood, echoing Hamlet’s phrase about how there’s a “divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.”

From New York Times • Apr. 17, 2016

But destiny that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will, had made up its mind for further revelations, and against destiny even Doctor Frank was powerless.

From Kate Danton, or, Captain Danton's Daughters A Novel by Fleming, May Agnes

Truly, as the poet says, there's a Divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.

From Our Elizabeth A Humour Novel by Kilpatrick, Florence A. (Florence Antoinette)

Are we to understand, then, that the architects thought of nothing but "hard utility," and that it was some æsthetic divinity that shaped their blocks, rough-hew them how they might?

From America To-day, Observations and Reflections by Archer, William

If his plans or attempts should one after the other fail, "there's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will"!

From Donal Grant, by George MacDonald by MacDonald, George