Then, rising with Aurora's light,
The muse invoked, sit down to write;
Blot out, correct, insert, refine.
Enlarge, diminish, interline;
Be mindful, when invention fails.
To scratch your head and bite your nails. [ Swift ]

He must have iron nails that scratches with a bear. [ Proverb ]

There comes Emerson first, whose rich words, every one,
Are like gold nails in temples to hang trophies on. [ Lowell ]

As well as his nails and fingers; at his fingers' ends. [ Proverb ]

Sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory. [ Diderot ]

Our vices are like our nails: even as we cut them, they grow again. [ T. Bernard ]

Strong thoughts are iron nails driven in the mind, that nothing can draw out. [ Diderot ]

He is to be educated because he is a man, and not because he is to make shoes, nails, and pins. [ Channing ]

When a man but half forgives his enemy, it is like leaving a bag of rusty nails to interpose between them. [ Latimer ]

Teeth, hair, nails, and the human species, prosper not when separated from their place. A wise man, being informed of this, should not totally forsake his native home. [ Hitopadesa ]

Let your pen fail, begin to trifle with blotting-paper, look at the ceiling, bite your nails, and otherwise dally with your purpose, and you waste your time, scatter your thoughts, and repress the nervous energy necessary for your task. [ G. H. Lewes ]