It takes character and personality to determine actively to live and learn, to persevere in patience while experience accumulates and teaches us the things we want to know. There is no one who is born with an infallible taste and judgment or who can acquire it suddenly.
The mind and eyes need as much training as the craftsman’s hands if they are to learn to discriminate between the true and the sham, the thing that is beautiful and the thing that is flashy.
It is when the craftsman can combine all three things, the fine judgment of mind, hands, and eyes, that he produces work of the highest order.
— The Woodworker, August 1951
It is obvious that the author of this short passage has had sufficient years of experience practicing his craft that he has achieved wisdom. For it is only with wisdom that one can communicate so succinctly and eloquently a concept that epitomizes the path to that of which he has achieved.
The life of a craftsman especially in the beginning is accompanied with a lot of mistakes and that mistake is really the best teacher and makes us more determined and motivated to make good in our craft.