Quotes about men (10000 quotes, page 7)

“Men seek rest in a struggle against difficulties; and when they have conquered these, rest becomes insufferable.”

Blaise Pascal Pensées

Source: Pensées

“A book,
a book full
of human touches,
of shirts,
a book
without loneliness, with men
and tools,
a book
is victory.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Source: Odes to Common Things

Books , Victory , Loneliness

“The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.”

Joseph Conrad book Under Western Eyes

Pt. II, ch. 4
Source: Under Western Eyes (1911)

Evil

“Most books on witchcraft will tell you that witches work naked. This is because most books on witchcraft are written by men.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

Source: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

Books

“The labours of men of genius, however erroneously directed, scarcely ever fail in ultimately turning to the solid advantage of mankind.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797–1851) English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer

“I see when men love women. They give them but a little of their lives. But women when they love give everything.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Love , Women

“There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers.”

Ayn Rand book Anthem

Source: Anthem (1937)

Freedom

“Men have become the tools of their tools.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

“I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Recollection by Gilbert J. Greene, quoted in The Speaking Oak (1902) by Ferdinand C. Iglehart and Latest Light on Abraham Lincoln (1917) by Ervin S. Chapman
Posthumous attributions

God

“There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men.”

John Locke (1632–1704) English philosopher and physician

Question , Learning

“The path of least resistance leads to crooked rivers and crooked men.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

“Like all harsh, cold men, he was easily tipped over into sentiment.”

Ian Fleming book Casino Royale

Source: Casino Royale

“My mind is the only sanctuary that has not been stolen from me. Men have tried to breach it before, but I've learned to defend it vigorously, for I am only safe with my innermost thoughts.”

Christopher Paolini (1983) American author

Learning

“Men will treat you the way you let them. There is no such thing as 'deserving' respect; you get what you demand from people.”

Tucker Max I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

Source: I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

People , Way

“Men are April when they woo, December when they wed…”

William Shakespeare As You Like It

Source: As You Like It

For women , Wedding

“Without the fear of God, men do not even observe justice and charity among themselves.”

John Calvin book Institutes of the Christian Religion

Source: Institutes of the Christian Religion

God , Fear , Justice

“Literature is always personal, always one man's vision of the world, one man's experience, and it can only be popular when men are ready to welcome the visions of others.”

W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright

World , Literature , Personality

“In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by nobody.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated (1894)

Books , Reading

“Why do old men wake so early? Is it to have one longer day?”

Ernest Hemingway book The Old Man and the Sea

Source: The Old Man and the Sea

“Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow book Voices of the Night

St. 7.
A Psalm of Life (1839)
Source: Voices of the Night

Time

“If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau book The Social Contract

Source: The Social Contract

God , Perfection

“Well, in the first place girls never marry the men they flirt with. Girls don't think it right.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

Girl , Thinking

“Where men are the most sure and arrogant, they are commonly the most mistaken, and have there given reins to passion, without that proper deliberation and suspense, which can alone secure them from the grossest absurdities.”

David Hume book An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals

§ 9.13 : Conclusion, Pt. 1
An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751)

Passion

“That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of Nations is as shocking as it is true…”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

War , Country

“The worst thing about some men is that when they are not drunk they are sober.”

W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright

“No weakness of the human mind has more frequently incurred animadversion, than the negligence with which men overlook their own faults, however flagrant, and the easiness with which they pardon them, however frequently repeated.”

Samuel Johnson The Rambler

Source: The Rambler

“No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit.”

Ansel Adams (1902–1984) American photographer and environmentalist

Confidence

“When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set.”

Lin Yutang (1895–1976) Chinese writer

As quoted in Hard-to-Solve Cryptograms (2001) by Derrick Niederman, p. 96

Sun

“Men choose Hamlet because every man sees himself as a disinherited monarch. Women choose Alice [in Wonderland] because every woman sees herself as the only reasonable creature among crazy people who think they are disinherited monarchs.”

Adam Gopnik (1956) American journalist

Women , People , Thinking

“God guard me from those thoughts men think
In the mind alone.”

W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright

Source: The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

God , Thinking

“Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.”

Frédéric Bastiat book The Law

Source: The Law (1850)
Context: Life, faculties, production — in other words, individuality, liberty, property — this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it. Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.

Life , Law

“It is of men, and of them only, that one should always be frightened.”

Louis-ferdinand Céline book Journey to the End of the Night

Source: Journey to the End of the Night

“They obeyed, as wise men do when a woman puts her foot down…”

Terry Pratchett book Nation

Source: Nation

“To my thinking, a great librarian must have a clear head, a strong hand, and, above all, a great heart. And when I look into the future, I am inclined to think that most of the men who achieve this greatness will be women.”

Melvil Dewey (1851–1931) American librarian and educator

Women , Thinking , Strong , Future

“I pray every single moment of my life; not on my knees but with my work. My prayer is to lift women to equality with men. Work and worship are one with me.”

Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) American women's rights activist

Life , Women

“A study in the Washington Post says that women have
better verbal skills than men. I just want to say to the
authors of that study: 'Duh.”

Conan O'Brien (1963) American television show host and comedian

Women , Study , Funny

“Men know life too early. Women know life too late. That is the difference between men and women.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Life , Women

“Men should be what they seem.”

William Shakespeare Othello

Source: Othello

“When a woman marries again, it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Women

“We men are wretched things.”

Homér Iliad

Source: The Iliad

“Children find everything in nothing, men find nothing in everything.”

Giacomo Leopardi book Zibaldone

Source: Zibaldone (2013) trans. Kathleen Baldwin et al., [527] ISBN 978-0374296827

Children

“I know you're no worse than most men but I thought you were better. I never saw you as a man. I saw you as my father.”

Arthur Miller All My Sons

Source: All My Sons

“Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under't.”

William Shakespeare Macbeth

Source: Macbeth

Books , Flowers , Time , Reading

“I am the least difficult of men. All I want is boundless love.”

Frank O'Hara (1926–1966) American poet, art critic and writer

Love

“It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us. Women fancy admiration means more than it does.
And men take care that they should.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

Women

“Prayer is the force as real as terrestrial gravity. As a physician, I have seen men, after all other therapy had failed, lifted out of disease and melancholy by the serene effort of prayer. Only in prayer do we achieve that complete and harmonious assembly of body, mind and spirit which gives the frail human reed its unshakable strength.”

Alexis Carrel (1873–1944) French surgeon and biologist

Disease , Effort

“The reason fat men are good natured is they can neither fight nor run.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

Nature , Fight

“You cannot win in a fight against women, cause men have a need to make sense”

Chris Rock (1965) American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer, and director

Women , Sense , Fight

“In old days men had the rack. Now they have the press.”

Oscar Wilde An Ideal Husband

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Source: An Ideal Husband

“Dawn: When men of reason go to bed.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

“A world of happier men and happier women who are truer to themselves. And this is how to start: We must raise our daughters differently. We must also raise our sons differently.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie We Should All Be Feminists

Source: We Should All Be Feminists

Women , World , Daughters

“These are the times that try men's souls.”

Thomas Paine book The American Crisis

Source: The American Crisis

Soul , Time

“for it was not knowledge but unity that she desired, not inscriptions on tablets, nothing that could be written in any language known to men, but intimacy itself, which is knowledge”

Virginia Woolf book To the Lighthouse

Part I, Ch. 9
Source: To the Lighthouse (1927)
Context: Could loving, as people called it, make her and Mrs Ramsay one? for it was not knowledge but unity that she desired, not inscription on tablets, nothing that could be written in any language known to men, but intimacy itself, which is knowledge, she had thought, leaning her head on Mrs Ramsay's knee.

Knowledge

“The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”

Virginia Woolf book A Room of One's Own

Ch. 3, p. 72) http://books.google.com/books?id=CoP1GxjoNnsC&q="The+history+of+men's+opposition+to+women's+emancipation+is+more+interesting+perhaps+than+the+story+of+that+emancipation+itself"&pg=PA72#v=onepage
Source: A Room of One's Own (1929)

Women , History

“As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Women , Books

“They say best men are molded out of faults,
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad”

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English playwright and poet

“Why does Samuel Butler say, 'Wise men never say what they think of women'? Wise men never say anything else apparently.”

Virginia Woolf book A Room of One's Own

Source: A Room of One's Own

Women , Thinking

“She would have kissed him, if she kissed stupid men.”

Tamora Pierce (1954) American writer of fantasy novels for children

Source: Trickster's Queen

Stupidity , Kiss

“Men are as faithful as their options.”

Chris Rock (1965) American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer, and director

Bigger and Blacker (HBO, 1999)
Variant: A man is basically as faithful as his options.

Faith

“I am a man" he told her, "and men do not consume pink beverages. Get thee gone woman, and bring me something brown.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Isabelle and Jace, pg. 534
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Glass (2009)
Context: "I think it's strawberry juice," Isabelle said. "Anyway, it's yummy. Jace?" She offered him the glass.
"I am a man," he told her, "and men do not consume pink beverages. Get thee gone, woman, and bring me something brown."
"Brown?" Isabelle made a face.
"Brown is a manly color."

“In the social production of their life, men enter into definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will; these relations of production correspond to a definite stage of development of their material forces of production. The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society — the real foundation, on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life determines the social, political and intellectual life process in general. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.”

Karl Marx book A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy

Preface to ' (1859).
Source: A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
Context: In the social production of their life, men enter into definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will; these relations of production correspond to a definite stage of development of their material forces of production. The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society — the real foundation, on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life determines the social, political and intellectual life process in general. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness. [Es ist nicht das Bewußtsein der Menschen, das ihr Sein, sondern umgekehrt ihr gesellschaftliches Sein, das ihr Bewusstsein bestimmt. ] At a certain stage of their development, the material productive forces in society come in conflict with the existing relations of production, or — what is but a legal expression for the same thing — with the property relations within which they have been at work before. From forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into fetters. Then begins an epoch of social revolution. With the change of the economic foundation the entire immense superstructure is more or less rapidly transformed. In considering such transformations a distinction should always be made between the material transformation of the economic conditions of production, which can be determined with the precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious, aesthetic or philosophic — in short, ideological forms in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out. Just as our opinion of an individual is not based on what he thinks of himself, so we can not judge of such a period of transformation by its own consciousness; on the contrary, this consciousness must be explained rather from the contradictions of material life, from the existing conflict between the social productive forces and the relations of production. No social order ever disappears before all the productive forces for which there is room in it have been developed; and new, higher relations of production never appear before the material conditions of their existence have matured in the womb of the old society itself. Therefore, mankind always sets itself only such tasks as it can solve; since, looking at the matter more closely, we will always find that the task itself arises only when the material conditions necessary for its solution already exist or are at least in the process of formation. In broad outlines we can designate the Asiatic, the ancient, the feudal, and the modern bourgeois modes of production as so many progressive epochs in the economic formation of society. The bourgeois relations of production are the last antagonistic form of the social process of production — antagonistic not in the sense of individual antagonism, but of one arising from the social conditions of life of the individuals; at the same time the productive forces developing in the womb of bourgeois society create the material conditions for the solution of that antagonism. This social formation constitutes, therefore, the closing chapter of the prehistoric stage of human society.

Life

“Religion, which should most distinguish us from the beasts, and ought most particularly elevate us, as rational creatures, above brutes, is that wherein men often appear most irrational, and more senseless than beasts.”

John Locke book An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Book IV, Ch. 18
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689)

Religion , Appearance

“Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

For Men , Feeling

“Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water.”

William Shakespeare Henry VIII

Source: Henry VIII

Water , Evil

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Widely attributed to Lincoln, this appears to be derived from Thomas Carlyle's general comment below, but there are similar quotes about Lincoln in his biographies.
Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.
Thomas Carlyle (1841) On Heroes and Hero Worship.
Any man can stand adversity — only a great man can stand prosperity.
Horatio Alger (1883), Abraham Lincoln: The Backwoods Boy; or, How a Young Rail-Splitter became President
Most people can bear adversity; but if you wish to know what a man really is give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, he never used it except on the side of mercy.
Robert G. Ingersoll (1883), Unity: Freedom, Fellowship and Character in Religion, Volume 11, Number 3, The Exchange Table, True Greatness Exemplified in Abraham Lincoln, by Robert G. Ingersoll (excerpt), Quote Page 55, Column 1 and 2, Chicago, Illinois. ( Google Books Full View https://books.google.com/books?id=JUIrAAAAYAAJ&q=%22man+really%22#v=snippet&)
If you want to discover just what there is in a man — give him power.
Francis Trevelyan Miller (1910), Portrait Life of Lincoln: Life of Abraham Lincoln, the Greatest American
Any man can handle adversity. If you truly want to test a man's character, give him power.
Attributed in the electronic game Infamous
Misattributed

Leadership , For Men

“In this world, who can do a thing, will not;
And who would do it, cannot, I perceive:
Yet the will's somewhat — somewhat, too, the power —
And thus we half-men struggle.”

Robert Browning (1812–1889) English poet and playwright of the Victorian Era

Source: Robert Browning's Poetry

World

“It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Principles of Social Reconstruction [Originally titled Why Men Fight : A Method Of Abolishing The International Duel], Ch. VIII : What We Can Do, p. 257
1910s
Context: It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly. The State and Property are the great embodiments of possessiveness; it is for this reason that they are against life, and that they issue in war. Possession means taking or keeping some good thing which another is prevented from enjoying; creation means putting into the world a good thing which otherwise no one would be able to enjoy. Since the material goods of the world must be divided among the population, and since some men are by nature brigands, there must be defensive possession, which will be regulated, in a good community, by some principle of impersonal justice. But all this is only the preface to a good life or good political institutions, in which creation will altogether outweigh possession, and distributive justice will exist as an uninteresting matter of course.
The supreme principle, both in politics and in private life, should be to promote all that is creative, and so to diminish the impulses and desires that center round possession.

“Men in rage strike those that wish them best.”

William Shakespeare Othello

Source: Othello

Rage

“We women, as some one says, love with our ears, just as you men love with your eyes…”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Love , Women

“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”

Charles Mackay book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Source: Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841)

Thinking , Sense , Madness

“You think that your laws correct evil - they only increase it. There is but one way to end evil - by rendering good for evil to all men without distinction.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Source: Christians and the Law-Courts

Law , Way , Thinking , Evil

“A great step forward was made the day men understood that in order to torment one another more efficiently they would have to gather together, to organize themselves into a society”

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

“To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men.”

Ella Wheeler Wilcox Protest

Protest, contained in "Poems of Problems", pp. 154–55 (1914). This quotation is often misattributed to Abraham Lincoln.
Poetry quotes, New Thought Pastels (1913)

Silence

“If women were as good as men they'd be a lot better!”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

Women

“Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

People , Freedom

“Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.”

George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States

Letter to Major-General Robert Howe (17 August 1779), published in "The Writings of George Washington": 1778-1779, edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford (1890)
Paraphrased variants:
Few men have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder.
Few men have virtue enough to withstand the highest bidder
1770s

“All political arrangements, in that they have to bring a variety of widely-discordant interests into unity and harmony, necessarily occasion manifold collisions. From these collisions spring misproportions between men’s desires and their powers; and from these, transgressions. The more active the State is, the greater is the number of these.”

Wilhelm Von Humboldt (1767–1835) German (Prussian) philosopher, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the University of Berlin

Source: The Limits of State Action (1792), Ch. 8

Spring

“Later I had two green ones [alligator pears] — not so perfect. I painted them several times [c. 1920] when the men [American modernist artists, a. o. Marsden Hartley ] didn't think much of what I was doing. They were all discussing Paul Cézanne, with long involved remarks about the 'plastic quality' of his form and colour. I was an outsider. My colour and form were not acceptable. It had nothing to do with Cézanne or anything else. I didn't understand what they were talking about why one colour was better than another... Years later when I finally got to Cézanne's Mont Sainte-Victoire in the south of France, I remember sitting there thinking, 'How could they attach all those analytical remarks to anything he did with that mountain?”

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986) American artist

All those entire words piled on top of that poor little mountain seemed too much.
1970 - 1986, Some Memories of Drawings (1976)

Mountain , Understanding , Thinking , Time

“The absence of effective State, and, especially, national, restraint upon unfair money-getting has tended to create a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power. The prime need to is to change the conditions which enable these men to accumulate power which it is not for the general welfare that they should hold or exercise.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

1910s, The New Nationalism (1910)

Money , Exercises , Change

“Playwrights are like men who have been dining for a month in an Indian restaurant. After eating curry night after night, they deny the existence of asparagus.”

Peter Ustinov (1921–2004) English actor, writer, and dramatist

As quoted in Contemporary Quotations (1988) by James Beasley Simpson

Night

“The ancients adorned their sarcophagi with the emblems of life and procreation, and even with obscene symbols; in the religions of antiquity the sacred and the obscene often lay very close together. These men knew how to pay homage to death. For death is worthy of homage as the cradle of life, as the womb of palingenesis.”

Thomas Mann book The Magic Mountain

Source: The Magic Mountain (1924), Ch. 5

Life , Death , Religion

“The white men of the South were aroused by the mere instinct of self-preservation to rid themselves, by fair means or foul, of the intolerable burden of governments sustained by the votes of ignorant negroes and conducted in the interest of adventurers.”

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American politician, 28th president of the United States (in office from 1913 to 1921)

Variant: The white men of the South were aroused by the mere instinct of self-preservation to rid themselves, by fair means or foul, of the intolerable burden of governments sustained by the votes of ignorant negroes and conducted in the interest of adventurers.
Source: 1900s, A History of the American People, Vol. 9 (1902), p. 58

“Well, children, when there is so much racket there be must something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the Negroes of the South and the women of the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?”

Sojourner Truth (1797–1883) African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist

Sojourner Truth, as quoted in The Harbrace Guide to Writing, Concise, p. 50, by Cheryl Glenn. Editorial Cengage Learning, 2011. ISBN 113317146X.

Women , Children , Thinking

“Men, you may all do as you damn please, but I'm a-goin' home.”

Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821–1877) Confederate Army general

Forrest to Charles Clark, Governor of Mississippi and Isham G. Harris, former Governor of Tennessee, in response to the request that he keep fighting. As quoted in May I Quote You, General Forrest? by Randall Bedwell.
1860s

Home

“God, grant us men to see in a small thing principles which are common things both small and great.”
Deus, dona hominibus videre in parvo communes notitias rerum parvarum atque magnarum.

Aurelius Augustinus book Confessions

Deus, dona hominibus videre in parvo communes notitias rerum parvarum atque magnarum.
http://books.google.com/books?id=lM5PQRHMNFwC&q=%22Deus+dona+hominibus+videre+in+parvo+communes+notitias+rerum+parvarum+atque+magnarum%22&pg=PR19#v=onepage
XI, 23
Confessions (c. 397)

God

“Calvin’s theocentric irrationalism eventually revealed itself as the cunning to technocratic reason which had to shape its human material. Misery and the poor laws did not suffice to drive men into the workshops of the early capitalistic era. The new spirit helped to supplement external pressures with a concern for wife and child to which the moral autonomy of the introverted subject in reality was tantamount.”

Max Horkheimer (1895–1973) German philosopher and sociologist

Source: "The End of Reason" (1941), p. 34.

Law , Reality , Help

“Reason, if consulted with, would advise, that their children's time should be spent in acquiring what might be useful to them when they come to be men, rather than to have their heads stuff'd with a deal of trash, a great part whereof they usually never do ('tis certain they never need to) think on again as long as they live: and so much of it as does stick by them they are only the worse for.”

John Locke book Some Thoughts Concerning Education

Sec. 94
Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)

Children , Thinking , Time , Parting

“I figured things would be better in Washington, that I'd find a lot of people I admired and belonged with. Washington is worse, Paul—Ilium to the tenth power. Stupid, arrogant, self-congratulatory, unimaginative, humorless men. And the women, Paul—the dull wives feeding on the power and glory of their husbands.”

Kurt Vonnegut book Player Piano

Source: Player Piano (1952), Chapter 9 (p. 88)

Women , People , Stupidity

“Do not get a name either as lavish or as churlish; as a friend of rogues or as a slanderer of good men.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 715.

“Goodness is achieved not in a vacuum, but in the company of other men, attended by love.”

Saul Bellow book Dangling Man

Dangling Man (1944) [Penguin Classics, 1996, ISBN 0-140-18935-1], p. 84
General sources

Love

“Speech perpetuates vision. We carry no light; we are things of shadow, for night closes our eyes, and we put out our hands to find our way when the light is gone; we only shine in speech; truth is made by the mouths of men. The wind of words — what is it? It is our breath — not all words, for there are artificial and copied ones which are not part of the speaker; but the profound words, the cries. In the human cry you feel the effort of the spring. The cry comes out of us, it is as living as a child. The cry goes on, and makes the appeal of truth wherever it may be, the cry gathers cries.”

Henri Barbusse (1873–1935) French novelist

Light (1919), Ch. XXII - Light

Truth , Way , Feeling , Spring

“Tragic paradox of freedom: the mediocre men who alone make its exercise possible cannot guarantee its duration.”

Emil M. Cioran book History and Utopia

History and Utopia (1960)

Exercises , Freedom

“Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship … To restrict the art of healing to one class of men and deny equal privileges to others will constitute the Bastille of medical science. All such laws are un-American and despotic and have no place in a republic … The Constitution of this republic should make the special privilege for medical freedom as well as religious freedom.”

Benjamin Rush (1745–1813) American physician, educator, author

As quoted by Terry Dorian, Total Health and Restoration: A 180-Day Journey (2002), p. 49. Other versions include:
[The] Constitution of this republic should make special provisions for medical freedom as well as religious freedom ... To restrict the art of healing to one class of men and deny equal privilege to another will constitute the Bastille of medical science. All such laws are un-American and despotic. They are fragments of monarchy and have no place in a republic. [in Robert L. Schwartz, "Laetrile: The Battle Moves into the Courtroom," American Bar Association Journal, February 1979, p. 226, no citation given]
Unless we put medical freedom into the constitution the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship and force people who wish doctors and treatment of their own choice to submit to only what the dictating outfit offers.
Laws restricting the practice of the healing art to one class of physicians and denying equal privileges to others, constitutes the Bastilles of Medicine, for they prevent progress. They are relics of Monarchy, and therefore have no place in a Republic. [in Thomas Morgan, "National Board of Health. The Other Side of the Question, As It Appears to Thomas Morgan," Youngstown Vindicator, 27 January 1911, p. 6]
This quote is often cited with regards to Rush, and can rarely be found attributed to his autobiography, but does not exist in that book http://books.google.com/books?id=EkTM9Kn9F4IC&q=%22into+the+constitution%22#v=onepage&q=%22into%20the%20constitution%22&f=false http://hpy.sagepub.com/content/16/1/89.abstract. The quote contains words and phrasing that seem anachronistic to late 18th century America.
Misattributed

Law , Art , Freedom , Science

“Seeing that I can find no subject specially useful or pleasing — since the men who have come before me have taken for their own every useful or necessary theme — I must do like one who, being poor, comes last to the fair, and can find no other way of providing himself than by taking all the things already seen by other buyers, and not taken but refused by reason of their lesser value. I, then, will load my humble pack with this despised and rejected merchandise, the refuse of so many buyers; and will go about to distribute it, not indeed in great cities, but in the poorer towns, taking such a price as the wares I offer may be worth.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), I Prolegomena and General Introduction to the Book on Painting

Way

“On the other hand, the free states carry on their government on the principle of the equality of men. We think slavery is morally wrong, and a direct violation of that principle. We all think it wrong. It is clearly proved, I think, by natural theology, apart from revelation. Every man, black, white or yellow, has a mouth to be fed and two hands with which to feed it, and that bread should be allowed to go to that mouth without controversy.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1860s, Speech at Hartford (1860)

Nature , Thinking

“For a story which is nat pleynli told,
But constreynyd undir woordes fewe
For lak off trouthe, wher thei be newe or olde,
Men bi report kan nat the mater shewe.”

John Lydgate (1370–1450) monk and poet

Prologue, line 92.
The Fall of Princes

“It is to be observed throughout Mr. Burke's book that he never speaks of plots against the Revolution; and it is from those plots that all the mischiefs have arisen. It suits his purpose to exhibit the consequences without their causes. It is one of the arts of the drama to do so. If the crimes of men were exhibited with their sufferings, stage effect would sometimes be lost, and the audience would be inclined to approve where it was intended they should commiserate.”

Thomas Paine book Rights of Man

Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)

Books , Art , Suffering

“An additional reason for caution in dealing with corporations is to be found in the international commercial conditions of to-day. The same business conditions which have produced the great aggregations of corporate and individual wealth have made them very potent factors in international Commercial competition. Business concerns which have the largest means at their disposal and are managed by the ablest men are naturally those which take the lead in the strife for commercial supremacy among the nations of the world. America has only just begun to assume that commanding position in the international business world which we believe will more and more be hers. It is of the utmost importance that this position be not jeoparded, especially at a time when the overflowing abundance of our own natural resources and the skill, business energy, and mechanical aptitude of our people make foreign markets essential. Under such conditions it would be most unwise to cramp or to fetter the youthful strength of our Nation. Moreover, it cannot too often be pointed out that to strike with ignorant violence at the interests of one set of men almost inevitably endangers the interests of all. The fundamental rule in our national life —the rule which underlies all others—is that, on the whole, and in the long run, we shall go up or down together.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

1900s, First Annual Message to Congress (1901)

Life , People , Youth , World

“He that doth not as other men do, but endeavoureth that which ought to be done, shall thereby rather incur peril than preservation; for whoso laboureth to be sincerely perfect and good shall necessarily perish, living among men that are generally evil.”

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

Source: The Cabinet Council (published 1658), Chapter 25

Evil , Perfection , Sincerity

“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.”
Humilitas homines sanctis angelis similes facit, et superbia ex angelis demones facit.

Aurelius Augustinus (354–430) early Christian theologian and philosopher

As quoted in Manipulus Florum (c. 1306), edited by Thomas Hibernicus, Superbia i cum uariis; also in Best Thoughts Of Best Thinkers: Amplified, Classified, Exemplified and Arranged as a Key to unlock the Literature of All Ages (1904) edited by Hialmer Day Gould and Edward Louis Hessenmueller
Disputed

Angels , Change

Quotes about men page 7

Quotes about men
page 7