“Men of perverse opinion do not know the excellence of what is in their hands, till some one dash it from them.”

“Men do not know what they do not know, and women should not tell them.”

Amy Bloom (1953) Fiction writer, screenwriter, social worker, psychotherapist

“I've studied men from my topsy-turvy
Close, and I reckon, rather true.
Some are fine fellows: some, right scurvy;
Most, a dash between the two.”

George Meredith (1828–1909) British novelist and poet of the Victorian era

“For most men (till by losing rendered sager)
Will back their own opinions by a wager.”

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement

“Ted, I noted, was very busy - at the pumps, at the glasses behind, the bottles below, the merrily ringing till, like a percussion-player in some modern work who dashes with confidence from xylophone to glockenspiel to triangle to wind-machine to big drum to tambourine.”

Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) English writer

“Men of genius do not excel in any profession because they labour in it, but they labour in it because they excel.”

William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer

“No one can deny the success of freedom, but some men rage and fight against it. And one of the main sources of reaction and opposition is radical Islam—the perversion by a few of a noble faith into an ideology of terror and death.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

“Kids are perfect people till grownups get their hands on them.”

John Irving (1942) American novelist and screenwriter

“The truth is, I do indulge myself a little the more in pleasure, knowing that this is the proper age of my life to do it; and out of my observation that most men that do thrive in the world, do forget to take pleasure during the time that they are getting their estate, but reserve that till they have got one, and then it is too late for them to enjoy it with any pleasure.”

Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) English naval administrator and member of parliament

“To govern men, you must either excel them in their accomplishments, or despise them.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister