“The important thing is to be nothing.”
1960's, Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde' (1965 - 1969)
“The important thing is to be nothing.”
1960's, Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde' (1965 - 1969)
Source: Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871), Ch. XXII : Grand Master Architect, p. 194
Context: To the gentle, many will be gentle; to the kind, many will be kind. A good man will find that there is goodness in the world; an honest man will find that there is honesty in the world; and a man of principle will find principle and integrity in the hearts of others.
There are no blessings which the mind may not convert into the bitterest of evils; and no trials which it may not transform into the noblest and divinest blessings. There are no temptations from which assailed virtue may not gain strength, instead of falling before them, vanquished and subdued.
“It's not how hard you hit. It's how hard you get hit…and keep moving forward.”
The Last Lecture (2008)
“The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.”
“Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.”
“Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.”
“Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.”
Speech at Plymouth, Massachusetts (22 December 1820)
“The opportunity of your life, it's you.”
Original: (it) L'occasione della tua vita, sei tu.
Source: prevale.net
“A great man is always willing to be little.”
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Compensation
Context: Our strength grows out of our weakness. The indignation which arms itself with secret forces does not awaken until we are pricked and stung and sorely assailed. A great man is always willing to be little. Whilst he sits on the cushion of advantages, he goes to sleep. When he is pushed, tormented, defeated, he has a chance to learn something; he has been put on his wits, on his manhood; he has gained facts; learns his ignorance; is cured of the insanity of conceit; has got moderation and real skill. The wise man throws himself on the side of his assailants. It is more his interest than it is theirs to find his weak point. The wound cicatrizes and falls off from him like a dead skin, and when they would triumph, lo! he has passed on invulnerable. Blame is safer than praise. I hate to be defended in a newspaper. As long as all that is said is said against me, I feel a certain assurance of success. But as soon as honeyed words of praise are spoken for me, I feel as one that lies unprotected before his enemies. In general, every evil to which we do not succumb is a benefactor.
“Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius.”
Source: Fire in the Belly: On Being a Man
“The man with no imagination has no wings.”
“No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.”
Strength to Love, p. 25
1960s, Strength to Love (1963)
Context: The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige and even his life for the welfare of others.
“Men get to be a mixture of the charming mannerisms of the women they have known.”
“A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out.”
“Men are punished by their sins, not for them.”
Variant: We are punished by our sins not for them.
Source: Love, Life and Work
Source: The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927), p. 12
in The Note Book, Kessinger Publishing (reprint 1998)
Context: If you err it is not for me to punish you. We are punished by our sins not for them.
1964 Memorial Edition, p. 266 http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations/Profiles-in-Courage-quotations.aspx
Variant: A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality.
Source: Pre-1960, Profiles in Courage (1956)
Context: The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality. In whatever area in life one may meet the challenges of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience — the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men — each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient — they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.
Context: For without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men — such as the subjects of this book — have lived. The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality. In whatever area in life one may meet the challenges of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience — the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men — each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient — they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.
“Men are like steel — when they lose their temper, they lose their worth.”
Though often attributed to Norris, this seems to have appeared as an anonymous proverb at least as early as 1961, in an edition of The Physical Educator
Misattributed
“The successful man will profit from his mistakes and
try again in a different way.”
“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.”
“A man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man.”
Variant: A man who is not a father to his children can never be a real man
Source: The Godfather
“If the world were a logical place, men would ride side saddle.”
Sudden Death (1983)
Variant: "If the World Made Sense, Men Would Ride Sidesaddle" was the title of a 1993 one-man comedy by Ed Navis, performed at Wings Theatre, New York.
Variant: If the world were a logical place, then men would ride side-saddle.
“A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.”
“The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.”
“Wealth is not about having a lot of money; it's about having a lot of options.”
“All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.”
Letter to J. G. Lockhart (c. 16 June 1830), in H. J. C. Grierson (ed.), Letters of Sir Walter Scott, Vol. II (1936), as reported in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1999), p. 652
“It is very important in life to know when your cue comes.”
“When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: 'Whose?”
William James, "Is Life Worth Living?," The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897).
Misattributed
“The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.”
“You can do anything, but not everything.”
“There is one rule, above all others, for being a man. Whatever comes, face it on your feet.”
al'Lan Mandragoran
(15 November 1990)
Source: The Great Hunt
“The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.”
James Legge translation.
Variant translations: The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his actions.
The greater man does not boast of himself, But does what he must do.
A good man does not give orders, but leads by example.
The Analects, Chapter I, Chapter IV
“Every man dies, not every man really lives”
Source: Braveheart
“There are lots of real men out there - men who could fall in love with you at the drop of a hat.”
Source: Message in a Bottle
“Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.”
“It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.”
“A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man”
“Stop the Madness,” Interview with Rupert Cornwell, Toronto Globe and Mail (6 July 2002) (see http://wist.info/galbraith-john-kenneth/7463/ )
Lonesome Traveler (1960)
Context: No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength. Learning for instance, to eat when he's hungry and sleep when he's sleepy.
“Success is getting what you want.
Happiness is wanting what you get.”
“The function of man is to live, not to exist.”
Variant: The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.
“Happiness is the longing for repetition.”
“I love not man the less, but nature more”
“We need men who can dream of things that never were.”
“A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.”
"Webster's Electronic Quotebase," ed. Keith Mohler, 1994
“Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.”
Of Studies
Essays (1625)
“The most important thing for a young man is to establish a credit — a reputation, character.”
The Men Who Are Making America (1918) by Bertie Charles Forbes
“But man is not made for defeat... a man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
Variant: A man can be destroyed but not defeated.
Source: The Old Man and the Sea (1952)
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.”
Brown did include this quote in her book Sudden Death (Bantam Books, New York, 1983), p. 68, but it appears she was just paraphrasing a quote that had already been written elsewhere. The earliest known appearance of a similar quote is the "approval version" of the Narcotics Anonymous "Basic Text" released in November 1981, which included the quote "Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results." A PDF scan of the 1981 approval version can be found here http://www.nauca.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/1981-11-Basic-Text-Approval-Form-White.pdf, with the quote appearing on p. 11 (p. 25 of the PDF), at the end of the fourth paragraph (which begins "We have a disease; progressive, incurable and fatal"). More in this article https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/23/same/ on Quote Investigator website.
Misattributed
"Why Not Try God?", Chapter 6 (newspaper serial), appeared in St. Petersburg Times, 25 January 1936, sect. 2, p. 3 http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SQxPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=500DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4725,3554118&dq=pickford+not-the-falling-down&hl=en
“You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.”
Markham Sutherland's father, quoted in Letter I.
The Nemesis of Faith (1849)
“Men are not against you, they are merely for themselves.”
Skyline: A Reporter's Reminiscence of the 1920s (1961) p. 105
“I think that Man in creating God somewhat overestimated his abilities.”
aphorism used in mRIF http://monochrom.at/mrif
“Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.”
As quoted in Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists (2007) by James Geary, p. 39
“Man is the creature of circumstances.”
"The Philanthropist".
“A Man who is Master of Patience, is Master of everything else.”
Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750), Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections
Source: Intuitions and Summaries of Thought (1862), Volume II, p. 24.
“Man knows that love is, but not what it is.”
Divine Love and Wisdom #1
“The true index of a man’s character is the health of his wife.”
Part II: Te Palinure Petens (p. 64)
The Unquiet Grave (1944)
“Circumstances rule men and not men circumstances.”
Herodotus, Book 7, Ch. 49; Misattributed to Euripedes in "The Imperial Four" by Professor Creasy in Bentley's Miscellany Vol. 33 (January 1853), p. 22
Variant translation: Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.
Misattributed
“The young man who has not wept is a savage, and the old man who will not laugh is a fool.”
Source: Dialogues in Limbo (1926), Ch. 3, P. 57
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need but not for every man's greed.”
Quoted by Pyarelal Nayyar in Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase (Volume 10), page 552 http://books.google.com/books?id=sswBAAAAMAAJ&q=%22The+Earth+provides+enough+to+satisfy+every+man's+need+but+not+for+every+man's+greed%22 (1958)
1940s
“Vote for the man who promises least; he'll be the least disappointing.”
As quoted in Meyer Berger’s New York (1960)
“A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.”
The Brook Kerith http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12821/12821-h/12821-h.htm, ch. 11 (1916).
“Action is the foundational key to all success.”
As quoted in Stack the Logs! : Building a Success Framework to Reach Your Dreams (2003) by Frank F. Lunn, p. 45
“There is no knowledge that is not power.”
Old Age
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870)
“Think like a man of action, and act like a man of thought.”
Henri Bergson, as quoted in The Forbes Scrapbook of Thoughts on the Business of Life (1950), p. 442; this only seems to have become attributed to Sallust in the early 21st century.
Misattributed
“He has but one great fear that fears to do wrong.”
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 244.
“All men would be tyrants if they could.”
Jure divino: a satyre, Introduction, l. 2 (1706).
“Like all young men I set out to be a genius, but mercifully laughter intervened.”
The Alexandria Quartet (1957–1960), Clea (1960)
“Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.”
Introduction
The Rebel (1951)
“The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.”
Attributed in the Sioux City Journal http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/ (6 Jul 2008), p. A8
In fact, from a " Valedictory Address https://books.google.com/books?id=7joCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA426&dq=The+young+man+knows+the+rules,+but+the+old+man+knows+the+exceptions&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAmoVChMI1-e4oOewyAIVWFmICh0eVQsI#v=onepage&q=%22The%20young%20man%20knows%20the%20rules%2C%20but%20the%20old%20man%20knows%20the%20exceptions%22&f=false, delivered to the Graduating Class of the Bellevue Hospital College" in 1871 by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr, reprinted in the New York Medical Journal 13 (April 1871): 426.
Misattributed