More than a mere source of Promethean sustenance to thwart the cold and cook one's meat, wood was quite simply mankind's first industrial and manufacturing fuel.

[…] I have observed in grinding of glasses […] sometimes the convex surface of one body being ground upon the concave surface of another, the two surfaces will happen to be so closely and exactly fitted to one another, (their immediate contact in all their parts, or at least in innumerable of them, hindering the intercurrence of the air) that a man is not able without breaking one or both of them to pull them directly asunder […]

Friends are a comfort in misfortune, but one should not make them unhappy by seeking their sympathy, as is done by women and womanish men.

John called. He asked for you to ring him back as soon as you arrived.