If you’re reading this you’re likely a craftsman which makes you unique because you have the ability to create and inspire.
This collection of Craftsmanship Quotes celebrates the art of making things with passion and precision.
Quotes like “In every artist there is a touch of genius“ and “Craftsmanship isn’t just about tools but the soul” highlight the innate talent and deep emotional connection artists have with their work.
Enjoy these quotes that admire the gift of craftsmanship. This post is dedicated to craftspeople worldwide honoring them with carefully selected quotes.
Here we go.
Craftsmanship Quotes
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist ~ Francis of Assisi.
A few hints as to literary craftsmanship may be useful to budding historians. First and foremost, get writing! ~ Samuel Eliot Morison.
First of all, I’d like to say here the fact that I’m not naturally a craftsman has made me work very hard. ~ Beatrice Wood.
When I received my first paycheck from my now known day job, I spent it on a period Craftsman chair and a Frank Lloyd Wright-wannabe lamp. With my second paycheck, I bought a stereo. ~ Brad Pitt.
My father thought of himself as a tradesman. A craftsman. ~ Thomas Steinbeck.
My father was a very good craftsman. He made furniture, he made silverware and he had an incredible gift in terms of how you can make something yourself. ~ Jonathan Ive.
In a story, the craftsmanship is fully exposed. A novel is like charity; it covers a multitude of faults. ~ Thea Astley.
I really think of the studio as being like craftsmanship time, and then playing is about releasing energy, and the two are really different. ~ Guy Picciotto.
My mission in life is to preserve craftsmanship. ~ Waris Ahluwalia.
At Hermès I learned, maybe more than anywhere else, how to work around a legacy, and how to integrate a strong brand culture into my work. Also, to work with a completely different projection system and craftsmanship. ~ Christophe Lemaire
Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind. ~ Johannes Brahms
I have long admired Steinway pianos for their qualities of tone, clarity, pitch consistency, touch responsiveness, and superior craftsmanship. ~ Billy Joel
I grew up in a craftsman’s home, where things were done with our own hands. I did cabinetmaking for four years and I hated it. ~ Peter Zumthor
One can be a technical master – full of craftsmanship, but not in most senses an artistic master. ~ Oliver.
Inspiring Craftsmanship Quotes
If I can say one thing for my pictures, it is a certain craftsmanship. A thought which has gone into every angle. There is nothing there without an optical reason. ~ Douglas Sirk
I love craftsmanship of any kind, a job well done either by my chiropractor or carpenter, and I am addicted to print, the type, the ink. But my basic passion is journalism and I can’t live without being online. ~ Harold Evans
Focusing totally on technique, you lose the essence and power of simplicity… The other extreme is just as bad; you see it in a lot of Modern works, where the concept is more important than the technique, resulting in very poor craftsmanship. ~ George L. Carlson
I think I’d have to say my favorite IWC. They have been around for so long and the craftsmanship is top notch. A watch maker that has been in business over 100 years has to know what they are doing. ~ Brian McKnight
The late ’70’s and early ’80s is the zenith of a certain craftsmanship in sound recording. ~ Thomas Bangalter
Learn technique; have full command to the extent of not being conscious of how it is done. When craftsmanship has been developed, you are free to create… technique will give way to expression! ~ Sergei Bongart
Christians should ultimately do everything that we do with excellence. There’s a story about repairs in the Sistine Chapel … when some repair work was being done the craftsmen saw that the work on the other side of the plaster, the part not visible to the human eye was done with the same kind of craftsmanship that was done on what was visible and observable. And the explanation for that is that the work that Christians do is not just for human consumption, but it is also for the eyes of God. ~ Hank Hanegraaff
The wider the author’s arsenal of tools and the better technically equipped the storyteller is, the better the tale will be. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon
I like the clubs because … we have two or three acoustic guitars up there and we’re not hard-core slamming or stomping through the music. We’re singing it with intricate harmonies and really showing the craftsmanship. ~ Toby Keith
I love anything by Joan Didion. Incidentally, she was one of the local moms when I was growing up in Point Dume. She always reminded me a little bit of my mother, so I feel a great affinity. I love the precision of Didion’s writing. There’s a construction and a craftsmanship to her sentences that’s imbued with so much emotion. ~ Rob Lowe.
In pursuing a ‘way,’ Japanese typically move beyond an interest in craftsmanship to a kind of sacred search for the ultimate. ~ Morinosuke Kawaguchi
It’s the disease of thinking that a having a great idea is really 90% of the work. And if you just tell people, ‘here’s this great idea,’ then of course they can go off and make it happen. The problem with that is that there’s a tremendous amount of craftsmanship between a having a great idea and having a great product. ~ Steve Jobs.
Craftsmanship Quotes And Sayings
Nobody else in the world would look at writing as craftsmanship – it’s totally this Protestant hardworking ethic. You go into this kind of infinite space of imagination and you fence yourself in with all kinds of laws. ~ Etgar Keret
A work of art rests its merits in traditional qualities. It may constitute a remarkable feat in craftsmanship; it may be a searching study of psychological states; it may be a nostalgic glance backward; it may be any one of an infinite number of concepts, none of which may have any possible bearing upon its degree of newness. ~ Ben Shahn
If it’s flipping hamburgers at McDonald’s, be the best hamburger flipper in the world. Whatever it is you do you have to master your craft. ~ Snoop Dogg
The fashion industry is all about storytelling and craftsmanship. Sustainability adds value because it makes that backstory even more impactful. ~ Miroslava Duma
A suit is just a suit: a practical garment, not a ceremonial robe; it can be worn out to dinner with friends or for a visit to an art gallery. Its beauty and craftsmanship are utterly wasted if you think of it as something magical and symbolic. ~ Russell Smith
That talk of inspiration is sheer nonsense; there is no such thing. It is a mere matter of craftsmanship. ~ William Morris
I had been attempting novels since I was 14 but always ran out of steam. High hopes, poor craftsmanship. ~ Michel Faber
Craftsmanship isn’t like water in an earthen pot, to be taken out by the dipperful until it’s empty. No, the more drawn out the more remains. ~ Lloyd Alexander
A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist. ~ Louis Nizer
My dad, he’s definitely one of greatest writers of his generation. There is no question about it. When you are that good, when work is that good, you have to appreciate every aspect of it. It’s the architecture of it, it’s like looking at a Frank Lloyd Wright building or a Lautner building, it’s master craftsmanship. Every aspect of it intertwines in a perfectly harmonious way. That’s what architecture is at its best and the architecture of my father’s music is on that level. ~ Sean Lennon
What is compelling with ‘War Horse’ is the jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring craftsmanship in this movie. ~ Stacey Snider
A painter may be looking at the world in a way which is very different from everyone else. If he’s a craftsman, he can get other people to see the world through his eyes, and so he enlarges our vision, perception, and there’s great value in that. ~ Edward de Bono
The analogies between science and art are very good as long as you are talking about the creation and the performance. The creation is certainly very analogous. The aesthetic pleasure of the craftsmanship of performance is also very strong in science. ~ Freeman Dyson
Real craftsmanship, regardless of the skill involved, reflects real caring, and real caring reflects our attitude about ourselves, about our fellowmen, and about life. ~ Spencer W. Kimball
What the church should be telling the worker is that the first demand religion makes on him is that he should be a good workman. If he is a carpenter he should be a competent carpenter. Church by all means on Sundays-but what is the use of church if at the very center of life a man defrauds his neighbor and insults God by poor craftsmanship. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
I find myself really privileged to be able to go in and look at a set that the likes of Hollywood can provide, and say, ‘My God, look at the craftsmanship in this; look at the ambition in it, the scale of it.’ ~ Brendan Gleeson.
Great Quotes About Craftspeople & Craftsmanship
I think the voice is an underrated instrument these days and it’s easy to make up for lack of ability with effects. I think sometimes people are more wowed with effects than core craftsmanship. Strong voices are not as common as they used to be. ~ Victoria Legrand
He who approaches the temple of the Muses without inspiration, in the belief that craftsmanship alone suffices, will remain a bungler and his presumptuous poetry will be obscured by the songs of the maniacs. ~ Plato
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, hand-production methods were abundant. Craft defined everything. The craftsman had an almost phenomenological knowledge of materials and intuited how to vary their properties according to their structural and environmental characteristics. ~ Neri Oxman
Art, whatever form it takes, requires hard work, craftsmanship and creativity. As a writer, I know my grammar, cadence, the music of prose, and the art of the narrative. ~ F. Sionil Jose
I have very limited craftsmanship. And a lot of the stuff I make plays on that. ~ David Rees
Develop craftsmanship through years of wide reading. ~ Annie Proulx
With a father who is a fabulous craftsman, I was raised with the fundamental belief that it is only when you personally work with a material with your hands, that you come to understand its true nature, its characteristics, its attributes, and I think – very importantly – its potential. Jonathan Ive We realised that the safer creative people and craftsman feel, the better the collection they produce. If they do a better collection, my revenues grow. It is not easy to attach figures, but it is what happens. ~ Marco Bizzarri
It goes without saying that a good Catholic novel should be good craftsmanship, good writing skills. The creative person must always be engaged in the long labor of perfecting the tools of his art. Yet the work itself need not be explicitly evangelical in its themes and plots. ~ Michael O’Brien
Craftsmanship names an enduring, basic human impulse, the desire to do a job well for its own sake. ~ Richard Sennett
I do feel like animated films really combine a lot of different of art forms: film-making and writing and drawing and painting – to a certain extent, even sculpting. It’s a wonderful medium to work with as a craftsman because it’s such so rich and so varied and so expressive. ~ John Musker
Faulkner is a writer who has had much to do with my soul, but Hemingway is the one who had the most to do with my craft – not simply for his books, but for his astounding knowledge of the aspect of craftsmanship in the science of writing. ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez
To the engineer, all matter in the universe can be placed into one of two categories: (1) things that need to be fixed, and (2) things that will need to be fixed after you’ve had a few minutes to play with them. Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art. ~ Tom Stoppard
When a work lifts your spirits and inspires bold and noble thoughts in you, do not look for any other standard to judge by: the work is good, the product of a master craftsman. ~ Jean de la Bruyere
In order to write about the machine you have to know it, to live with it, to love it (or hate it). I think that true writing could be done on industrial subjects by people who work in industry, who are firmly linked with it. But … and here is the opposite ‘but’, the technology of literary craftsmanship is itself a very fine and complex matter. Qualified specialists from industry prove themselves dilettantes in the field of literature. The needed synthesis is not yet in sight. ~ Yevgeny Zamyatin
There is in Albert Camus’s literary craftsmanship a seductive intelligence that could almost make a reader dismiss his philosophical intentions if he had not insisted on making them so clear. ~ Aberjhani
Famous Quotes About Craftsmanship
Art that submits to orthodoxy, to even the soundest doctrines, but lacks imagination and deep self-expression is lost leaving only the craftsmanship. ~ Andre Gide
My inspiration is always love and history, and my passion to a fault is craftsmanship and responsibility. Those are the simplest things. It goes beyond jewelry. It’s every part of my life. ~ Waris Ahluwalia
There are two men inside the artist, the poet and the craftsman. One is born a poet. One becomes a craftsman. ~ Emile Zola
Art itself cannot be taught, but craftsmanship can. Architects, painters, sculptors are all craftsmen in the original sense of the word. Thus it is a fundamental requirement of all artistic creativity that every student undergo a thorough training in the workshops of all branches of the crafts. ~ Walter Gropius
The beauty of a finely worked object points to the beauty of the craftsmanship. The beauty of the craftsmanship points to the beauty of the name which was the source of the craftsmanship. The beauty of the name of the craftsman’s art points to the beauty of the craftsman’s attributes manifested in that art. ~ Said Nursi
What’s important is the way we say it. Art is all about craftsmanship. Others can interpret craftsmanship as style if they wish. Style is what unites memory or recollection, ideology, sentiment, nostalgia, presentiment, to the way we express all that. It’s not what we say but how we say it that matters. ~ Federico Fellini
Every one of us is, even from his mother’s womb, a master craftsman of idols. ~ John Calvin
I have no favourite genre or style but treat each novel with the same care, imagination and craftsmanship. It’s as difficult to write a crime or a children’s novel with a touch of style and grace as it is a literary novel. ~ Garry Disher
I wanted to be considered a good craftsman. I wanted my dresses to be constructed like buildings, molded to the curves of the female form, stylizing its shape. ~ Christian Dior
Writing code is not production, it’s not always craftsmanship though it can be, it’s design. ~ Joel Spolsky
Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art. ~ Tom Stoppard
The Phantom Menace is not a masterpiece, but it’s an example of how imagination, craftsmanship, and technological bravura can fashion superior entertainment out of something that is far from flawless. ~ James Berardinelli
Capra is an old-time movie craftsman, the master of every trick in the bag, and in many ways he is more at home with the medium than any other Hollywood director. But all of his details give the impression of contrived effect. ~ Manny Farber
I was sad to leave Europe in 1890, after my student days in Germany… But then, once back in New York, I experienced an intense longing for Europe, for its vital tradition of music, theatre, art, craftsmanship… I felt bewildered and lonely. How was I to use myself? ~ Alfred Stieglitz
When young, one learns his craftsmanship, may become a young master, and it is youth that is most auspicious for developing certain skills. ~ Robert Schumann
Jaipur, like Florence or Kyoto, other artisan-rich cities to which it roughly compares, has always been known for its craftsmanship. ~ Hanya Yanagihara
The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship. ~ Martin Luther
What sets us apart from some of the other options available would definitely be our unique combination of skills and craftsmanship with being a well-managed business. We control the number of projects we are involved with so that our clients remain a top priority throughout the duration of their project. ~ Kris Kidd
I can’t draw. But I can draw with sound. That’s the most useful thing I learned in terms of what my craft is… The arrangements were mine. They were little lines and stuff that I had written myself… And I was locked into this idea that vocals didn’t count, melodies didn’t count, songwriting craftsmanship didn’t count. The only thing that counted was high arching guitar solos. ~ Linda Ronstadt
I have tried to write songs quickly that get scrapped. I’ve also taken a long time on songs that get scrapped because you can over-think something, and you’ve squeezed the life out of it. As opposed to work of art, it looks like a really great work of craftsmanship. ~ Boots Riley.
Powerful Quotes About Craftsmanship
The most awkward means are adequate to the communication of authentic experience, and the finest words no compensation for lack of it. It is for this reason that we are moved by the true Primitives and that the most accomplished art craftsmanship leaves us cold. ~ Ananda Coomaraswamy
Our appreciation of folk art will strengthen our identities, our pride in belonging to a community. People trained in the creative use of their hands soon acquire skills, excellent craftsmanship which will be the most important measure of how well we can industrialize. ~ F. Sionil José
To craftsmanship we shall add statesmanship in the capitol of peace. ~ Warren R. Austin
I am very much interested in the so-called useless object. I mean, it takes perfect craftsmanship, beautiful material carefully measured and crafted, but at the same time it’s really useless. ~ Ai Weiwei
The Bauhaus fights imitation, inferior craftsmanship and artistic dilettantism ~ Walter Gropius
I believe and find in my study of art that the real artist is nine-tenths of the time a craftsman, and it is only in that small one-tenth of the time that he rises to the elevated position of a prophet and a master. ~ Gutzon Borglum.
Well… you know, I love motorcycles. They’re just beautiful, and there’s a certain craftsmanship in older bikes, older Triumphs or BSAs or Norton. I’m just very attracted to it. ~ Ray LaMontagne.
The element of craftsmanship in poetry is obscured by the fact that all men are taught to speak and most to read and write, while very few men are taught to draw or paint or write music. ~ W. H. Auden
Rewriting is a whole other art form; it’s about craftsmanship. ~ Sam Shepard.
Motivational Craftsmanship Quotes
I can draw with sound. That’s the most useful thing I learned in terms of what my craft is…The arrangements were mine. They were little lines and stuff that I had written myself…And I was locked into this idea that vocals didn’t count, melodies didn’t count, songwriting craftsmanship didn’t count. The only thing that counted was high arching guitar solos. ~ Linda Ronstadt
The best craftsmanship always leaves holes and gaps… so that something that is not in the poem can creep, crawl, flash or thunder in. ~ Dylan Thomas.
Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives, the cumulative experience of many masters of craftsmanship. Quality also marks the search for an ideal after necessity has been satisfied and mere usefulness achieved. ~ John Ruskin
I like to consider myself a student of hip hop. There’s a certain level of certification and wit and craftsmanship that comes with rapping. As rap progresses – it’s a young genre – it’s becoming way more mainstream, crossing over to different lanes. I feel like it’s losing its essence in a way, because it’s getting commercialized. I want to keep it fresh and keep it progressive, but I also want to respect the foundation of what rap is about. ~ Cakes da killa
I hate crap, I like craftsmanship. ~ Isabella Blow.
Stanley Kubrick, I had been told, hates interviews. It’s hard to know what to expect of the man if you’ve only seen his films. One senses in those films painstaking craftsmanship, a furious intellect at work, a single-minded devotion. ~ Tim Cahill.
