“A man, a real man, must never be an agent, a tool, or a gambler—acting for himself or for others—he must employ such. A real man—a financier—was never a tool. He used tools. He created. He led.”

Source: The Financier (1912), Ch. VI

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Feb. 16, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "A man, a real man, must never be an agent, a tool, or a gambler—acting for himself or for others—he must employ such. A…" by Theodore Dreiser?

Theodore Dreiser20

Novelist, journalist 1871–1945

Related quotes

“Man is a tool-using animal…Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

Bk. I, ch. 5.
1830s, Sartor Resartus (1833–1834)

“I, the man of color, want only this: That the tool never possess the man. That the enslavement of man by man cease forever. That is, of one by another. That it be possible for me to discover and to love man, wherever he may be.”

Frantz Fanon book Black Skin, White Masks

Source: Black Skin, White Masks

“Socrates: The shoemaker, for example, uses a square tool, and a circular tool, and other tools for cutting?
Alcibiades: Yes.
Socrates: But the tool is not the same as the cutter and user of the tool?
Alcibiades: Of course not. …
Socrates: Then what shall we say of the shoemaker? Does he cut with his tools only or with his hands?
Alcibiades: With his hands as well.
Socrates: He uses his hands too?
Alcibiades: Yes. …
Socrates: And does not a man use the whole body?
Alcibiades: Certainly.
Socrates: And that which uses is different from that which is used?
Alcibiades: True.
Socrates: Then a man is not the same as his own body?
Alcibiades: That is the inference.
Socrates: What is he, then?
Alcibiades: I cannot say.
Socrates: Nay, you can say that he is the user of the body.
Alcibiades: Yes.
Socrates: And the user of the body is the soul?
Alcibiades: Yes, the soul.”

Plato (-427–-347 BC) Classical Greek philosopher

Alcibiades I

“You must either make a tool of the creature, or a man of him.”

John Ruskin book The Stones of Venice

Volume II, chapter VI, section 12.
The Stones of Venice (1853)
Context: You must either make a tool of the creature, or a man of him. You cannot make both. Men were not intended to work with the accuracy of tools, to be precise and perfect in all their actions. If you will have that precision out of them, and make their fingers measure degrees like cog-wheels, and their arms strike curves like compasses, you must unhumanize them. All the energy of their spirits must be given to make cogs and compasses of themselves…. On the other hand, if you will make a man of the working creature, you cannot make him a tool. Let him but begin to imagine, to think, to try to do anything worth doing; and the engine-turned precision is lost at once. Out come all his roughness, all his dulness, all his incapability; shame upon shame, failure upon failure, pause after pause: but out comes the whole majesty of him also; and we know the height of it only when we see the clouds settling upon him.

“If a man never contradicts himself, the reason must be that he virtually never says anything at all.”

Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) Austrian physicist

Source: What Is Life? with Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches

“A man must be himself convinced if he is to convince others. The prophet must be his own disciple, or he will make none. Enthusiasm is contagious: belief creates belief.”

George Henry Lewes (1817–1878) British philosopher

The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)
Context: A man must be himself convinced if he is to convince others. The prophet must be his own disciple, or he will make none. Enthusiasm is contagious: belief creates belief. There is no influence issuing from unbelief or from languid acquiescence. This is peculiarly noticeable in Art, because Art depends on sympathy for its influence, and unless the artist has felt the emotions he depicts we remain unmoved: in proportion to the depth of his feeling is our sympathetic response; in proportion to the shallowness or falsehood of his presentation is our coldness or indifference.

“He's definitely a character. But he's his own marketing tool, and he does it very well. He's real laid-back and subdued most times. Real down-to-earth guy. And when it's lights-camera-action -- different person.”

Terrell Owens (1973) former American football wide receiver

Dorsey Levens — reported in Jason Wilde (December 3, 2004) "A Perfect Fit - Shedding His Label As A Malcontent, Terrell Owens Has Transformed The Eagles With His NFL-Best 13 Receiving Tds - And Form-Fitting Tights", Wisconsin State Journal, p. D1.
About

“Man is a make-believe animal — he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part.”

William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer

Notes of a Journey through France and Italy (1824), ch. XVI

“When a mechanic wants to fix a broken-down car engine, he must have the necessary tools to do the job. When the people move for liberation they must have the basic tool of liberation: the gun.”

Huey P. Newton (1942–1989) Co-founder of the Black Panther Party

From "In Defense of Self-defense" I (June 20, 1967)
To Die For The People

“The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.”

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–1859) British historian and Whig politician

citation needed <br class="br">The earliest quotations of this give it as anonymous or unknown author. https://books.google.com/books?id=hPIsAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA321&dq=%22what+he+would+do+if+he+knew+it+would+never+be+found+out%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAGoVChMIlvi0prz_xwIVTwaSCh0hVwX5#v=onepage&q=%22what%20he%20would%20do%20if%20he%20knew%20it%20would%20never%20be%20found%20out%22&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=i2MPAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA16-IA71&dq=%22what+he+would+do+if+he+knew+it+would+never+be+found+out%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAGoVChMIkMmp8rz_xwIV1BGSCh25lAO0#v=onepage&q=%22what%20he%20would%20do%20if%20he%20knew%20it%20would%20never%20be%20found%20out%22&f=false <br class="br">Attributed

“A man, a real man, must never be an agent, a tool, or a gambler—acting for himself or for others—he must employ such. A real man—a financier—was never a tool. He used tools. He created. He led.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Theodore Dreiser20

Related quotes

Related topics