The anvil of justice is planted firm, and fate who makes the sword does the forging in advance.
The first time I saw nitroglycerine was in the beginning of the Crimean War. Professor Zinin in St. Petersburg exhibited some to my father and me, and struck some on an anvil to show that only the part touched by the hammer exploded without spreading.
I keep waiting, like in the cartoons, for an anvil to drop on my head.
How about 'anvil babies' - because that is what anchor babies are around the necks of the American taxpayer.
Iron till it be thoroughly heated is incapable to be wrought; so God sees good to cast some men into the furnace of affliction, and then beats them on his anvil into what frame he pleases.
A family is a place where principles are hammered and honed on the anvil of everyday living.
Harsh counsels have no effect; they are like hammers, which are always repulsed by the anvil.
For all your days be prepared, and meet them ever alike. When you are the anvil, bear - when you are the hammer, strike.
In this world a man must either be anvil or hammer.
We are always on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things.
