“The social, friendly, honest man,
Whate'er he be,
'Tis he fulfills great Nature's plan,
And none but he!”

“There's a place in the world for the angry young man
With his working class ties and his radical plans
He refuses to bend he refuses to crawl
And he's always at home with his back to the wall
And he's proud of his scars and the battles he's lost
And struggles and bleeds as he hangs on his cross
And likes to be known as the angry young man.”

Billy Joel (1949) American singer-songwriter and pianist

“No man is wise or safe, but he that is honest.”

Walter Raleigh (1554–1618) English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer

“Man is fulfilled only when he ceases to be man.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

“The Inquisitor is the forgiving father, the scientific materialist, and the social engineer. He is the most compassionate, and honest, of politicians; he takes on great burdens of responsibility in order to protect his subjects from ethical doubt. But he also suppresses any attempt to expand their self-consciousness: he is the ‘great simplifier’, the shepherd to a flock of carefree children.”

John Carroll (1944) Australian professor and author

“Man is something that shall be overcome. Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman - a rope over an abyss. What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Thus Spoke Zarathustra

“He should be careful. It's dangerous to be an honest man.”

Mario Puzo The Godfather

“Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

“And he shall be Levon,
And he shall be a good man.
And he shall be Levon,
In tradition with the family plan.
And he shall be Levon,
And he shall be a good man.
He shall be Levon.”

Elton John (1947) English rock singer-songwriter, composer and pianist

“Now, he no longer promises others the fulfillment of his duties, but promises himself the fulfillment of man.”

Martin Buber (1878–1965) German Jewish Existentialist philosopher and theologian