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

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

Indeed, character consists in little acts, well and honorably performed; daily life being the quarry from which we build it up, and rough-hew the habits which form it.

From How to Get on in the World A Ladder to Practical Success by Calhoon, Major A.R.

For, where men like Byron are concerned, it is peculiarly true that the divinity of the Muse shapes their ends, rough-hew these how they may.

From The Bridling of Pegasus Prose Papers on Poetry by Austin, Alfred

Back of both men and circumstances, however, stands sovereign Providence, shaping our ends, rough-hew them how we will.

From Luther Examined and Reexamined A Review of Catholic Criticism and a Plea for Revaluation by Dau, W. H. T. (William Herman Theodore)