Quotes about men
page 99

Friedrich Engels photo
Benjamin Franklin photo

“[Freedom is] not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …

This is actually from an essay "On Government No. I" that appeared in Franklin's paper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, on 1 April 1736. The author was John Webbe. He wrote about the privileges enjoyed under British rule,
:Thank God! we are in the full enjoyment of all these privileges. But can we be taught to prize them too much? or how can we prize them equal to their value, if we do not know their intrinsic worth, and that they are not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature?
Misattributed

Helen Diner photo
Luigi Russolo photo
Tanith Lee photo
Betty Friedan photo
Alexej von Jawlensky photo
Firuz Shah Tughlaq photo
Richard Huelsenbeck photo
H. G. Wells photo
Alphonse Daudet photo

“Men grow old, but they do not ripen.”

Alphonse Daudet (1840–1897) French novelist

Les hommes vieillissent, mais ne mûrissent pas.
Source: Notes sur la vie (published posthumously 1899), P. 103; translation p. 380.

Johann Gottlieb Fichte photo

““Whether there can be love without esteem?” Oh yes, thou dear, pure one! Love is of many kinds. Rousseau proves that by his reasoning and still better by his example. La pauvre Maman and Madame N____ love in very different fashions. But I believe there are many kinds of love which do not appear in Rousseau’s life. You are very right in saying that no true and enduring love can exist without cordial esteem; that every other draws regret after it, and is unworthy of any noble soul. One word about pietism. Pietists place religion chiefly in externals; in acts of worship performed mechanically, without aim, as bond-service to god; in orthodoxy of opinion; and they have this among other characteristic marks, that they give themselves more solicitude about other’s piety than their own. It is not right to hate these men,-we should hate no one, but to me they are very contemptible, for their character implies the most deplorable emptiness of the head, and the most sorrowful perversion of the heart. Such my dear friend never can be; she cannot become such, even were it possible-which it is not-that her character were perverted; she can never become such, her nature has too much reality in it. You trust in Providence, your anticipation of a future life, are wise, and Christian. I hope, I may venture to speak of myself, that no one will take me to be a pietist or stiff formalist, but I know no feeling more thoroughly interwoven with my soul than these are.”

Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) German philosopher

Johann Fichte Letter to Johanna Rahn from Johann Gottlieb Fichte's popular works: Memoir and The Nature of the Scholar<!--pp. 14-15--> https://archive.org/stream/johanngottlieb00fichuoft#page/14/mode/1up

“When we read what Goethe says about men we are ashamed of what we have said; when we read what he says about painting and statues we are ashamed of what Goethe has said.”

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist

“Malraux and the Statues at Bamberg”, p. 194
A Sad Heart at the Supermarket: Essays & Fables (1962)

John Dryden photo

“Men met each other with erected look,
The steps were higher that they took;
Friends to congratulate their friends made haste,
And long inveterate foes saluted as they passed.”

John Dryden (1631–1700) English poet and playwright of the XVIIth century

Threnodia Augustalis (1685), line 124-127.

Liam O'Flaherty photo

“I was born on a storm-swept rock and hate the soft growth of sun-baked lands where there is no frost in men's bones.”

Liam O'Flaherty (1896–1984) Irish writer

Joseph Conrad: An Appreciation (1930; New York: Haskell House, 1973) p. 11

Richard Cobden photo
Beverly Sills photo
H. Rider Haggard photo

“Justice does not require that men must stand idly by while others destroy the basis of their existence.”

Source: A Theory of Justice (1971; 1975; 1999), Chapter IV, Section 35, p. 218

Ian Hislop photo
Wilford Woodruff photo
Ernesto Che Guevara photo
William Penn photo
Christopher Titus photo
Ernest Hemingway photo
Maxwell D. Taylor photo
Bob Woodward photo
Richard Nixon photo

“1 in 10 chance perhaps, but save Chile! worth spending; not concerned; no involvement of embassy; $10,000,000 available, more if necessary; full-time job — best men we have; game plan; make the economy scream; 48 hours for plan of action.”

Richard Nixon (1913–1994) 37th President of the United States of America

Notes taken down by CIA director Richard Helms on Nixon's orders for a plan against Salvador Allende of Chile. (15 September 1970); Document reproduced as part of George Washington University's National Security Archive. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/ch26-01.htm
1970s

William Morley Punshon photo
Howard Bloom photo

“Men and animals do not merely struggle to maintain their individual existence; they are members of larger social groups. And, all too often, it is the social unit, not the individual, whose survival comes first.”

Howard Bloom (1943) American publicist and author

The Clint Eastwood Conundrum
The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History (1997)

Daniel J. Boorstin photo
Milo Yiannopoulos photo

“I would say, that situation I am describing on Joe Rogan show I was very definitely a predator on both occasions. As offensive as some people would find that I don’t much care. That was certainly my experience. The law is probably about right, that’s probably roughly the right age. I think it’s probably about okay, but there are certainly people who are capable of giving consent at a younger age, I certainly consider myself to be one of them. You’re misunderstanding what pedophilia means. Pedophilia is not a sexual attraction to somebody 13-years-old who is sexually mature. Pedophilia is attraction to children who have not reached puberty. Pedophilia is attraction to people who don’t have functioning sex organs yet. Who have not gone through puberty. Some of those relationships between younger boys and older men, the sort of coming of age relationships, the relationships in which those older men help those young boys to discover who they are, and give them security and safety and provide them with love and a reliable and sort of a rock where they can’t speak to their parents. You don’t understand what pedophilia is if you are saying I’m defending it because I’m certainly not.”

Milo Yiannopoulos (1984) British journalist

Episode 193 http://drunken-peasants-podcast.wikia.com/wiki/Episode_193 of Drunken Peasants Podcast debuted 4 January 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azC1nm85btY&t=3552s, transcript circulated 20 February 2017 by Heavy http://heavy.com/news/2017/02/milo-yiannopolous-pedophilia-transcript-pederasty-video-full-sex-boys-men-catholic-priest-cpac-quotes/ with supplements from discover-the-truth https://discover-the-truth.com/2017/02/20/full-unedited-video-of-milo-yiannopoulos-defending-pedophilia/
2017

Daniel J. Boorstin photo
Nicolas Chamfort photo

“Few people are prepared to use their reason without fear or favor, or bold enough to apply it relentlessly to every moral, political and social issue: to kings and ministers, to men in high places … And if we don't, we're doomed to remain mediocre.”

Nicolas Chamfort (1741–1794) French writer

Il y a peu d'hommes qui se permettent un usage vigoureux et intrépide de leur raison, et osent l'appliquer à tous les objets dans toute sa force. Le tems est venu où il faut l'appliquer ainsi à tous les objets de la Morale, de la Politique et de la Société, aux rois, aux ministres, aux grands, aux philosophes, aux principes des Sciences, des Beaux-arts, etc., sans quoi, on restera dans la médiocrité.
Reflections

John Fante photo
George Eliot photo

“If art does not enlarge men's sympathies, it does nothing morally.”

George Eliot (1819–1880) English novelist, journalist and translator

Letter to Charles Bray (5 July 1859)

Aurangzeb photo

“The Lord Cherisher of the Faith learnt that in the provinces of Tatta, Multan, and especially at Benares, the Brahman misbelievers used to teach their false books in their established schools, and that admirers and students both Hindu and Muslim, used to come from great distances to these misguided men in order to acquire this vile learning. His Majesty, eager to establish Islam, issued orders to the governors of all the provinces to demolish the schools and temples of the infidels and with the utmost urgency put down the teaching and the public practice of the religion of these misbelievers. (…) It was reported that, according to the Emperor's command, his officers had demolished the temple of Viswanath at Kashi.”

Aurangzeb (1618–1707) Sixth Mughal Emperor

1669. Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh). Maasir-i-Alamgiri, translated into English by Sir Jadu-Nath Sarkar, Calcutta, 1947, pp. 51-55; see Ayodhya Revisited https://books.google.com/books?id=gKKaDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA567 by Kunal Kishore, quoted in Shourie, Arun (2014). Eminent historians: Their technology, their line, their fraud. Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India : HarperCollins. (Different translation: “News came to court that in accordance with the Emperor’s command his officers had demolished the temple of Vishvanath [Bishwanath] at Banaras”. ... The Emperor ordered the governors of all the provinces to demolish the schools and temples of the infidels and strongly put down their teaching and religious practices.” )

Ref: en.wikiquote.org - Aurangzeb / Quotes from late medieval histories / 1660s
Quotes from late medieval histories, 1660s

André Maurois photo

“But now if any one hath a mind to come over to their sect, he is not immediately admitted, but he is prescribed the same method of living which they use for a year, while he continues excluded'; and they give him also a small hatchet, and the fore-mentioned girdle, and the white garment. And when he hath given evidence, during that time, that he can observe their continence, he approaches nearer to their way of living, and is made a partaker of the waters of purification; yet is he not even now admitted to live with them; for after this demonstration of his fortitude, his temper is tried two more years; and if he appear to be worthy, they then admit him into their society. And before he is allowed to touch their common food, he is obliged to take tremendous oaths, that, in the first place, he will exercise piety towards God, and then that he will observe justice towards men, and that he will do no harm to any one, either of his own accord, or by the command of others; that he will always hate the wicked, and be assistant to the righteous; that he will ever show fidelity to all men, and especially to those in authority, because no one obtains the government without God's assistance; and that if he be in authority, he will at no time whatever abuse his authority, nor endeavor to outshine his subjects either in his garments, or any other finery; that he will be perpetually a lover of truth, and propose to himself to reprove those that tell lies; that he will keep his hands clear from theft, and his soul from unlawful gains; and that he will neither conceal anything from those of his own sect, nor discover any of their doctrines to others, no, not though anyone should compel him so to do at the hazard of his life. Moreover, he swears to communicate their doctrines to no one any otherwise than as he received them himself; that he will abstain from robbery, and will equally preserve the books belonging to their sect, and the names of the angels [or messengers]. These are the oaths by which they secure their proselytes to themselves.”

Jewish War

Douglas MacArthur photo
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay photo
Robin Morgan photo
Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas photo

“I take the world to be but as a stage,
Where net-maskt men do play their personage.”

Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas (1544–1590) French writer

Dialogue between Heraclitus and Democritus. Compare: "All the world ’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players", William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act ii. Scene 7.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Hillel the Elder photo

“In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man.”

Hillel the Elder (-112–9 BC) Mishnah rabbi

<span lang="he" dir="rtl">במקום שאין אנשים, השתדל להיות איש.</span>
Bemakom she'ein anashim, hishtadel lihyot ish.
2:6
Pirkei Avot

Halldór Laxness photo
Plutarch photo

“All men whilst they are awake are in one common world; but each of them, when he is asleep, is in a world of his own.”

Of Superstition.
Attributed to Heraclitus, Frag. 89
Moralia, Others

Warren Farrell photo
Michael Moorcock photo
Frederic Dan Huntington photo
Conway Zirkle photo

“Whenever like mates with like (genetically), the statistical distribution curve, which describes the frequency of the purely fortuitous combinations of genes, is flattened out, its mode is depressed, and its extremes are increased. The reduces the number of the mediocre produced and increases the numbers both of the sub-normal and the talented groups. It is possible that, without this increase in the number of extreme variants, no nation, race or group could produce enough superior individuals to maintain a complex culture. Certainly not enough to operate or advance a civilization. …Any number of social customs have stood, and still stand, in the way of an optimum amount of selective matings. In a feudal society, opportunities are denied to many able men who, consequently, never develop to the high level of their biological potential and thus they remain among the undistinguished. Such able men (and women) might also be diffused throughout an "ideal" classless society and, lacking the means to separate themselves from the generality, or to develop their peculiar talents, would be effectively swamped. In such a society they could hardly segregate in groups. In fact, only a few of the able males might ever meet an able female who appealed to them erotically. Obviously an open society—one in which the able may rise and the dim-wits sick, and where like intelligences have a greater chance of meeting and mating—has advantages that other societies do not have. Our own society today—incidentally and without design—is providing more and more opportunities for intelligent matrimonial discrimination. It is possible that our co-educational colleges, where highly-selected males and females meet when young, are as important in their function of bringing together the parents of our future superior individuals as they are in educating the present crop.”

Conway Zirkle (1895–1972)

"Some Biological Aspects of Individualism," Essays on Individuality (Philadelphia: 1958), pp. 59-61

Jack London photo
Paulo Freire photo

“The culture of the dominant class hinders the affirmation of men as beings of decision.”

Paulo Freire (1921–1997) educator and philosopher

Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970)

Frances Kellor photo
Herbert Spencer photo
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax photo

“It is a general Mistake to think the Men we like are good for every thing, and those we do not, good for nothing.”

George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax (1633–1695) English politician

Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750), Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections

Ramanuja photo
John Berger photo
Betty Friedan photo
Warren Farrell photo
Richard Pryor photo
Isaiah Berlin photo
Camille Paglia photo
Anthony Trollope photo
Marcus Aurelius photo
Jin Jing photo

“Local police were separated for me for a moment when activists began to disturb the relay. I was attacked three times. The most terrible moment was when three or four men came to rob the torch, but I couldn't give up. As a torchbearer, that's my duty.”

Jin Jing (1981) Chinese fencer

Jin: Protecting the torch is my duty http://torchrelay.beijing2008.cn/en/torchbearers/headlines/n214299282.shtml The Official Website of the 2008 Summer Olympics Torch Relay, 2008-04-10

Alexis De Tocqueville photo
Friedrich Paulus photo

“You are talking to dead men here.”

Friedrich Paulus (1890–1957) German general

To a Luftwaffe officer sent to Stalingrad. Quoted in "Voices From The Third Reich: An Oral History" - Page 152 - by Johannes Steinhoff, Peter Pechel, Helmut D. Schmidt, Dennis E. Showalter - History - 1994

Oliver Cowdery photo

“Women flirt to keep their stock high, men to get somewhere.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Women & men

William Penn photo

“Men are generally more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children.”

William Penn (1644–1718) English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, early Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania

85
Fruits of Solitude (1682), Part I

Willa Cather photo
Bruce Fairchild Barton photo
Woodrow Wilson photo

“There can be no equality or opportunity, the first essential of justice in the body politic, if men and women and children be not shielded in their lives, their very vitality, from the consequences of great industrial and social processes which they can not alter, control, or singly cope with.”

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

First Inaugural Address http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=25831 (4 March 1913)
1910s

William Blake photo

“He who shall hurt the little wren
Shall never be beloved by men.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

Source: 1800s, Auguries of Innocence (1803), Line 29

Confucius photo

“Men do not stumble over mountains, but over molehills”

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

Reported in: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Agriculture (1973) Hearings Before the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, Ninety-second Congress. p. 21
Attributed

Joe Haldeman photo
Owen Lovejoy photo

“I know that this is a pro-slavery rebellion, for it is nothing else. Slavery and rebellion are identical and freedom and loyalty are identical, and those slave-holders who are truly loyal will soon become abolitionists, for that is the logic of their position and they will see as I see, that slavery must perish and pro-slavery men will be secessionists.”

Owen Lovejoy (1811–1864) American politician

Speech https://books.google.com/books?id=qMEv8DNXVbIC&pg=PA293&dq=%22Pro-Slavery+Rebellion%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjtq-fys9zSAhWM4yYKHUaWBNIQ6AEIMjAE#v=onepage&q=%22Pro-Slavery%20Rebellion%22&f=false (January 1862)
1860s

Calvin Coolidge photo
Yukio Mishima photo

“Within those confining walls, teachers — a bunch of men all armed with the same information — gave the same lectures every year from the same notebooks and every year at the same point in the textbooks made the same jokes.”

Yukio Mishima (1925–1970) Japanese author

"Cigarette" ("Ta- bako") story, quoted in 三島由紀夫短編集: Seven Stories, translated by John Bester (2002), p. 110.

Alexis De Tocqueville photo
Thomas Henry Huxley photo
Moshe Chaim Luzzatto photo
Philo photo
Robert E. Howard photo
Frances Kellor photo
Kent Hovind photo

“America fears the unshaven legs, the unshaven men's cheeks, the aroma of perspiration, and the limp prick. Above all it fears the limp prick.”

Walter Abish (1931) Austrian-American author

[Walter Abish, In the Future Perfect, New Directions, 1977, ISBN 0811206602, Pg. 22]

John Bright photo
Theodor Herzl photo