Are you telling me your surrogate work isn't your goal?

This similarity sometimes made it hard for ancient scholars to tell their work apart.

Can't you tell their work?

"Do you think it's nice for those who succeed to be told their work is rubbish because it isn't art?"

Somebody is standing there telling you how much he admires you, or your work.

"I can tell John Heyduk's work anywhere," he said.

Only to be told 9 months later their hard work boiled down to easy tests.

"He didn't tell you his work was dangerous?"

Too much personality in a sign is a drawback, although the trained eye can sometimes tell one painter's work from another's, at least on portraits.

Wench," the leader of the wytches said, "no one tells a meister his work.