A Bad Workman Always Quarrels With/Blames His Tools
Human nature is such that none is prepared to accept his own deficiency, drawbacks and blemishes. A typist who often commits mistakes would blame the quality of the typewriters. Similarly an inefficient mechanic condemns the entire automobile industry. This is because we are used to finding faults with everyone and everything else except ourselves. Thus instead of improving ourselves, like a clumsy workman looks for scapegoats to thrust our faults on.
The bad workman quarrels with his tools, not because his tools are poor, but because he himself is off-balance inside, and has become quarrelsome by nature. It is seldom the case that shoddy workmanship is due to inadequate equipment or difficult working conditions. It results, for the most part, from the fact that the workman himself is shoddy and indifferent in his attitude. This is perhaps most evident in a student who does not fare well in his examinations. Instead of looking for reasons within himself, he looks outside for someone or something to blame such as a difficult question paper, a leaky pen or a wrathful examiner. Similarly a dancer who fails to perform well a particular event attributes his poor performance to the incompetent musicians, accompanists or to the poor stage management. A farmer who does not tend his crops blames his poor produce on everything and everyone other than his negligence. An employee who fails to get promoted is a common example of this proverb. Instead of self-analysis, he accuses his superior of favouritism and his promoted colleagues of sycophancy. He fails to realize that reward is proportional to input.
The most inspiring characters in history have been those who met their destinies without complaint, whose moral polarity enabled them to see opportunity where others saw only obstruction. The life of Abraham Lincoln is an example of the higher attitude toward events. Lincoln never quarrelled with conditions, though by all worldly standards there was ample occasion for him. He did not complain that good books were difficult to obtain, nor that light from oil lamps made reading impossible. If necessary, Lincoln read by light from the fireplace, whenever he had a book to read, and valued his schooling the more despite its hardships. The light that shone from his own illumined soul more than compensated for the darkness arising from events.
In a universe of Law, there is never an excuse for complaints, no matter how difficult the conditions, nor how poor one's tools may be. This does not mean that people are perfect nor that circumstances are always what they should be, but simply that complaining itself is out of the true.
Regards
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