Noun
an inclination or desire; used in the plural in the phrase `left to your own devices'
Source: WordNetThere is nothing in machinery, there is nothing in embankments and railways and iron bridges and engineering devices to oblige them to be ugly. Ugliness is the measure of imperfection. H. G. Wells
Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery. Horace Mann
Of course. I favor passive investing for most investors, because markets are amazingly successful devices for incorporating information into stock prices. Merton Miller
Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation. Jean Arp
One discards rhyme, not because one is incapable of rhyming neat, fleet, sweet, meet, treat, eat, feet but because there are certain emotions or energies which are nor represented by the over-familiar devices or patterns. Ezra Pound
God made man upright, but man searched out many crooked devices. Jewish Proverb