„Some men are born to feast, and not to fight;
Whose sluggish minds, e'en in fair honor's field,
Still on their dinner turn—
Let such pot-boiling varlets stay at home,
And wield a flesh-hook rather than a sword.“

„A lesson which history should have taught us thousands of years ago was finally driven home. No man can wield absolute power over other men and still retain his own mind.“

—  Samuel R. Delany, livre The Jewels of Aptor

Source: The Jewels of Aptor (1962), Chapter X (p. 133)
Contexte: A lesson which history should have taught us thousands of years ago was finally driven home. No man can wield absolute power over other men and still retain his own mind. For no matter how good his intentions are when he takes up the power, his alternate reason is that freedom, the freedom of other people and ultimately his own, terrifies him. Only a man afraid of freedom would want this power, who could conceive of wielding it. And that fear of freedom will turn him into a slave of this power.

„There is just no comparison between having a dinner date with a man and staying home playing canasta with the girls.“

—  Marilyn Monroe American actress, model, and singer 1926 - 1962

„New York, home of the vivisectors of the mind, and of the mentally vivisected still to be reassembled, of those who live intact, habitually wondering about their states of sanity, and home of those whose minds have been dead, bearing the scars of resurrection.“

—  Muriel Spark Scottish writer 1918 - 2006

The Hothouse by the East River (London: Macmillan, 1973) p. 12

„Here, in this filthy stench of powder smoke, he felt at home. Other men learned how to plough fields or to shape wood, but Sharpe had learned how to use a musket or rifle, sword or bayonet, and how to turn an enemy's flank or assault a fortress.“

—  Bernard Cornwell British writer 1944

Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, p. 69
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Rifles (1988)

„No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home.“

—  L. Frank Baum, livre Le Magicien d'Oz

Source: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

„Unfortunately, goodness and honor are rather the exception than the rule among exceptional men, not to speak of geniuses.“

—  Cesare Lombroso Italian criminologist 1835 - 1909

Die Welt (1909); also in A Treasury of Jewish Quotations (1985) by Joseph L. Baron.

„The world is only as fair as you can make it. Takes a lot of fight. A lot of fight. But if you stay in here, in your little cave, that's one less fighter on the side of fair.“

—  Libba Bray American teen writer 1964

Source: Beauty Queens

„And great is the man with a sword undrawn,
And good is the man who refrains from wine;
But the man who fails and yet still fights on,
Lo, he is the twin-born brother of mine.“

—  Joaquin Miller American judge 1837 - 1913

"For Those Who Fail" in Memorie and Rime (1884), p. 237.
Contexte: p>Oh, great is the hero who wins a name,
But greater many and many a time
Some pale-faced fellow who dies in shame,
And lets God finish the thought sublime.And great is the man with a sword undrawn,
And good is the man who refrains from wine;
But the man who fails and yet still fights on,
Lo, he is the twin-born brother of mine.</p

„If we only knew, the sacred value, And if the might of our pen, is stronger than the swords of men, let us unsheathe our minds, write with our hearts again.“

—  Dawud Wharnsby Canadian musician 1972

"What Has Become"
For Whom The Troubadour Sings (2010)

„And down the dunes a thousand guns lie crouched,
Unseen, beside the flood —
Like tigers in some Orient jungle crouched
That wait and watch for blood. Meanwhile, through streets still echoing with trade,
Walk grave and thoughtful men,
Whose hands may one day wield the patriot's blade
As lightly as the pen.“

—  Henry Timrod Poet from the American South 1828 - 1867

"Charleston", st. 4–5

„As much valour is to be found in feasting as in fighting, and some of our city captains and carpet knights will make this good, and prove it.“

—  Robert Burton, livre The Anatomy of Melancholy

Section 2, member 2, subsection 2.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part I

„Wherefore governments rather depend upon men, than men upon governments. Let men be good, and the government cannot be bad; if it be ill, they will cure it. But, if men be bad, let the government be never so good, they will endeavor to warp and spoil it to their turn.“

—  William Penn English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, early Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania 1644 - 1718

Frame of Government (1682)
Contexte: Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them; and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined too. Wherefore governments rather depend upon men, than men upon governments. Let men be good, and the government cannot be bad; if it be ill, they will cure it. But, if men be bad, let the government be never so good, they will endeavor to warp and spoil it to their turn.

„I will fight with all the weapons within my reach rather than let myself be nailed to a cross or whatever.“

—  Ernesto Che Guevara Argentine Marxist revolutionary 1928 - 1967

„Defeat exists but not suffering. A true warrior knows that when he loses a battle, he is improving the skill with which he wields a sword. He will be able to fight more skilfullly next time.“

—  Paulo Coelho Brazilian lyricist and novelist 1947

„The bondage we are born into is the bondage we cannot see. Verily, freedom is little more than the ignorance of tyranny. Live long enough, and you will see: Men resent not the whip so much as the hand that wields it.“

—  R. Scott Bakker Canadian writer 1967

TRIAMIS I, JOURNALS AND DIALOGUES
The White Luck Warrior (2011)

„I’d rather fight than switch. It’s worth fighting.“

—  William Kristol American writer 1952

Twitter post https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1038771343918096385 (9 September 2018)
2010s, 2018

„For it had been better for men to be born dumb and devoid of reason than to turn the gifts of providence to their mutual destruction.“

—  Quintilian ancient Roman rhetor 35 - 96

Book XII, Chapter I, 2; translation by H. E. Butler
De Institutione Oratoria (c. 95 AD)
Original: (la) Mutos enim nasci et egere omni ratione satius fuisset quam providentiae munera in mutuam perniciem convertere.

„The law of honor: Go along only on the paths of honor. Fight, and never be a coward. Leave the path of infamy to others. Better to fall in an honorable fight than win by infamy.“

—  Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Romanian politician 1899 - 1938

For My Legionaries: The Iron Guard (1936), Politics

„Men have still not realized that letting women do so much of the work for so little reward makes a man in the house an expensive luxury rather than a necessity.“

—  Germaine Greer Australian feminist author 1939

Work (pg. 136)
The Whole Woman (1999)