Nature & Animals Quote by Thomas Carlyle

Man is a Tool-using Animal (Handthierendes Thier). Weak in himself, and of small stature, he stands on a basis, at most for the flattest-soled, of some half-square foot, insecurely enough; has to straddle out his legs, lest the very wind supplant him. Feeblest of bipeds! Three quintals are a crushing load for him; the steer of the meadow tosses him aloft, like a waste rag. Nevertheless he can use Tools, can devise Tools: with these the granite mountain melts into light dust before him; he kneads glowing iron, as if it were soft paste; seas are his smooth highway, winds and fire his unwearying steeds. Nowhere do you find him without Tools: without Tools he is nothing, with Tools he is all. (Book I (chapter commonly numbered V in many editions); appears on p. 32 in some collected-edition paginations). This is in Carlyle’s own work Sartor Resartus, in the passage introducing the definition “Man is a Tool-using Animal.” Your shorter modern form (“Man is a tool-using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all”) is an excerpt of the longer paragraph. Sartor Resartus was first published in serial form in Fraser’s Magazine from November 1833 through August 1834; a privately printed book issue for friends was produced in London in 1834 (often described as 58 copies). Because you asked for the FIRST publication: the earliest appearance is the Fraser’s Magazine serialization (1833–1834), with the line present in Book I; the exact month/instalment containing Book I, chapter V would need verification from the Fraser’s issue table-of-contents for that run (not fully resolved from the single page image alone).