“Man is opposed to fair play: he wants it all, and he wants it his way.”

Source: The Great Gatsby

Source: Your Forces and How to Use Them (1912), p. 107

Variant: The real man wants two different things: danger and play. Therefore he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything.
Source: Thus Spoke Zarathustra

1860s, The Good Fight (1865)

Listen, Little Man! (1948)
Context: My intellect tells me: "Tell the truth at any cost." The Little Man in me says: "It is stupid to expose oneself to the little man, to put oneself at his mercy. The Little Man does not want to hear the truth about himself. He does not want the great responsibility which is his. He wants to remain a Little Man. He wants to remain a Little Man, or wants to become a little great man. He wants to become rich, or a party leader, or commander of a legion, or secretary of the society for the abolition of vice. But he does not want to assume responsibility for his work..."

Beautiful Loser.
Song lyrics, Beautiful Loser (1975)

Quoted in Nichols, Roger (1992). Debussy Remembered. London: Faber. , p. 186

The Golden Man (1954)
Context: Cris didn't want to play. He never played. He was off in a world of his own, a world into which none of them could come. He never joined in anything, games or chores or family activities. He was by himself always. Remote, detached, aloof. Seeing past everyone and everything — that is, until all at once something clicked and he momentarily rephased, reentered their world briefly.

Magic Johnson — reported in David Steele (May 9, 1997) "Magic Says Bird Will Succeed", San Francisco Chronicle, p. B8.
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