“Man, false man, smiling, destructive man!”

—  Nathaniel Lee

Theodosius, or the Force of Love (acted 1680), Act iii., Sc. 2.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Man, false man, smiling, destructive man!" by Nathaniel Lee?
Nathaniel Lee photo
Nathaniel Lee 6
British writer 1653–1692

Related quotes

Daniel Defoe photo

“What is one man's safety is another man's destruction.”

Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) English trader, writer and journalist

Source: Robinson Crusoe (1719), Ch. 13, Wreck of a Spanish Ship.

Thomas Paine photo

“Man is not the enemy of man, but through the medium of a false system of Government.”

Thomas Paine book Rights of Man

Part 1.7 Conclusion
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)
Context: Man is not the enemy of man, but through the medium of a false system of Government. Instead, therefore, of exclaiming against the ambition of kings, the exclamation should be directed against the principle of such governments; and instead of seeking to reform the individual, the wisdom of a nation should apply itself to reform the system.

Aldous Huxley photo

“A man can smile and smile and be a villain.”

Aldous Huxley book Brave New World

Source: Brave New World

James Thomson (poet) photo

“Falsely luxurious, will not man awake?”

James Thomson (poet) The Seasons

Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Summer (1727), l. 67.

John Ogilby photo

“No Beast is half so False as Man.”

John Ogilby (1600–1676) Scottish academic

Fab. XLIX: Of the Fox and the Cock
The Fables of Aesop (2nd ed. 1668)

Sri Chinmoy photo

“Man invents war. Man discovers peace. He invents war from without. He discovers peace from within. War man throws. Peace man sows. The smile of war is the flood of human blood. The smile of peace is the love, below, above.”

Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) Indian writer and guru

Songs of the Soul (1971)

Alphonse Daudet photo

“Distrust the man who smiles before he speaks.”

Alphonse Daudet Tartarin sur les Alpes

Méfie-toi de celui qui rit avant de parler!
Tartarin sur les Alpes (1885; repr. New York: H. Holt, 1917) p. 89; Katharine Prescott Wormeley (trans.) Tartarin of Tarascon. To Which is Added Tartarin on the Alps (Boston: Little, Brown, 1900) p. 241.

“It is impossible to persuade a man who does not disagree, but smiles.”

Muriel Spark book The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Variant: It is impossible to repent of love. The sin of love does not exist.
Source: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), P. 92

Related topics