Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter
Family Business
Lyrics, The College Dropout (2004)
Quotes about man page 38
“God gave man two ears and one tongue so we could listen twice as much as we talk.”
Faisal of Saudi Arabia (1906–1975) King of Saudi Arabia
As per an article published in the New York Times in 1975, this was King Faisal's favorite quote. https://www.nytimes.com/1975/03/26/archives/faisal-rich-and-powerful-led-saudis-into-20th-century-and-to-arab.html
Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English writer
Diary entry on James Joyce's Ulysses (16 August 1922), quoted in Virginia Woolf, A Writer's Diary (1953; 1965), p. 47
Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy
Bk I, Ch II
The Ethics Of Aristotle (Vol. I)
“I had always been man enough to ruin myself without help.”
Ernst Jünger book The Glass Bees
The Glass Bees (1957)
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, the man who never reads lives only one.”
George Raymond Richard Martin book A Dance with Dragons
Source: A Dance with Dragons. Jojen
“And no bathroom on earth will make up for marrying a bearded man you hate.”
Dodie Smith book I Capture the Castle
Source: I Capture the Castle
Catherine Ryan Hyde (1955) American writer
Source: Pay It Forward
Katie MacAlister (1964) Author
Source: A Girl's Guide to Vampires
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)
1960s, Voting Rights Act signing speech (1965)
Context: If you do this, then you will find, as others have found before you, that the vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.
“It's dangerous, son."
"What's dangerous?"
"When a man goes outside his house to look for peace.”
Lorraine Hansberry (1930–1965) playwright and writer
Source: A Raisin in the Sun: The Unfilmed Original Screenplay
John Ruskin (1819–1900) English writer and art critic
According to Ruskin scholar George P. Landow, there is no evidence that this quotation or its variants can be found in any of Ruskin's works.
[Landow, George P., A Ruskin Quotation?, VictorianWeb.org, 2007-07-27, http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/ruskin/quotation.html, 2013-01-07]
Disputed
“A man's ego is the fountainhead of human progress.”
Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher
“A great man is always willing to be little.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
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.
“Remove the document—and you remove the man.”
Mikhail Bulgakov (1891–1940) Russian author primarily known for his novel "Master and Margarita"
Charles Bukowski book Factotum
Source: Factotum (1975), Ch. 17
Context: I got into bed, opened the bottle, worked the pillow into a hard knot behind my back, took a deep breath, and sat in the dark looking out of the window. It was the first time I had been alone for five days. I was a man who thrived on solitude; without it I was like another man without food or water. Each day without solitude weakened me. I took no pride in my solitude; but I was dependent on it. The darkness of the room was like sunlight to me. I took a drink of wine.
Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature
The Garden of Forking Paths (1942), The Garden of Forking Paths
Source: Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings
“How beautiful was the spectacle of nature not yet touched by
the often perverse wisdom of man!”
Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose
Source: The Name of the Rose
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher
Source: On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History
Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher
The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)
Source: The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism
“Everybody told me to be a man. Nobody told me how.”
Laurie Halse Anderson (1961) American children's writer
Source: Twisted
“Every man is a king so long as he has someone to look down on.”
Sinclair Lewis book It Can't Happen Here
Source: It Can't Happen Here
“Every man I meet is in some way my superior; and in that I can learn of him.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
As quoted in Think, Vol. 4-5 (1938), p. 32
“Just because a man glances up at the sky at night does not make him an astronomer, you know.”
John Boyne book The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Source: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America
Remarks Recorded for the Opening of a USIA Transmitter at Greenville, North Carolina (8 February 1963) Audio at JFK Library (01:29 - 01:40) http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKWHA-161-010.aspx · Text of speech at The American Presidency Project http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=9551 <br class="br">1963 <br class="br">Variant: A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. Ideas have endurance without death.
“Anyone can attract a man. The trick is to keep him.”
Philippa Gregory book The Other Boleyn Girl
Source: The Other Boleyn Girl
Alfred Lansing book Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Source: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
“I viewed my fellow man not as a fallen angel, but as a risen ape.”
Desmond Morris (1928) English zoologist, ethologist and surrealist painter
Source: The Naked Ape: A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal
Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …
“I'm not the marrying kind -"
St. Vincent snorted. "No man is. Marriage is a female invention.”
Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer
Source: Mine Till Midnight
“The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer
Erica Jong book Fear of Flying
Variant: Women are their own worst enemies. And guilt is the main weapon of self-torture... Show me a woman who doesn't feel guilty and I'll show you a man.
Source: Fear of Flying
Cormac McCarthy (1933) American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter
Source: Blood Meridian (1985), Chapter II
Source: Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
Context: A man’ s at odds to know his mind cause his mind is aught he has to know it with. He can know his heart, but he dont want to. Rightly so. Best not to look in there. It aint the heart of a creature that is bound in the way that God has set for it. You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow. A creature that can do anything. Make a machine. And a machine to make the machine. And evil that can run itself a thousand years, no need to tend it.
“Show me a man with a tattoo and I'll show you a man with an interesting past.”
Jack London (1876–1916) American author, journalist, and social activist
Variant: Show me a man with a tattoo and I'll show you a man with an interesting past.
“You'se something tuh make uh man forgit to git old and forgit tuh die.”
Zora Neale Hurston book Their Eyes Were Watching God
Source: Their Eyes Were Watching God
“By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he's been bought ten times over.”
Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer
Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter
Source: The Scarlet Letter (1850), Chapter XX: The Minister in a Maze
Octavio Paz book The Labyrinth of Solitude
The Labyrinth of Solitude (1950)
Variant: Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone.
Context: Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone, and the only one who seeks out another. His nature – if that word can be used in reference to man, who has 'invented' himself by saying 'no' to nature – consists in his longing to realize himself in another. Man is nostalgia and a search for communion. Therefore, when he is aware of himself he is aware of his lack of another, that is, of his solitude.
“Only the man who has known freedom
Can define his prison.”
Catherine Fisher book Incarceron
Source: Incarceron
Victor Hugo book Les Misérables
Variant: I met in the street a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat was threadbare - there were holes at his elbows; the water passed through his shoes and the stars through his soul.
Source: Les Misérables
“A man is just a woman’s strategy for making other women.”
Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer
Source: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Chapter 20 (p. 121)
Doris Lessing (1919–2013) British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
Erich Fromm (1900–1980) German social psychologist and psychoanalyst
Source: Man for Himself (1947), Ch. 3 "Human Nature and Character
Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker
Source: The Holy Terrors
Paul Tillich book The Courage to Be
Source: The Courage to Be (1952), p. 127
Source: Systematic Theology, Vol 2: Existence and the Christ
Context: Plato … teaches the separation of the human soul from its “home” in the realm of pure essences. Man is estranged from what he essentially is. His existence in a transitory world contradicts his essential participation in the eternal world of ideas.
“I'm a rich man. To have everything you need is the definition of affluence.”
Lee Child book Gone Tomorrow
Source: Gone Tomorrow
“Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills.”
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher
Der Mensch kann tun was er will; er kann aber nicht wollen was er will. <br class="br">Einstein paraphrasing Schopenhauer. Reportedly from On The Freedom Of The Will (1839), as translated in The Philosophy of American History: The Historical Field Theory (1945) by Morris Zucker, p. 531 <br class="br">Variant translations: <br class="br">Man can do what he wants but he cannot want what he wants. <br class="br">As quoted in The Motivated Brain: A Neurophysiological Analysis of Human Behavior (1991) by Pavel Vasilʹevich Simonov, p. 198 <br class="br">We can do what we wish, but we can only wish what we must. <br class="br">As quoted by Einstein in "What Life Means to Einstein: An Interview by George Sylvester Viereck" The Saturday Evening Post (26 October 1929) p. 17. A scan of the article is available online here http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wp-content/uploads/satevepost/what_life_means_to_einstein.pdf (see p. 114). <br class="br">Attributed <br class="br">Source: Essays and Aphorisms
“I cannot allow another man to take what I already consider mine.”
Maya Banks (1964) Author
Source: Sweet Persuasion
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Source: "Einstein's Reply to Criticisms" (1949), The World As I See It (1949)
Context: What is the meaning of human life, or of organic life altogether? To answer this question at all implies a religion. Is there any sense then, you ask, in putting it? I answer, the man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life.
“You may be a lady but you are still the man!”
Lynda Barry (1956) Cartoonist
Source: The Lynda Barry Experience
“A man with nothing to die for has even less for which to live.”
Margaret Weis (1948) American fantasy novelist
Michel Foucault (1926–1984) French philosopher
Source: The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception
“Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another.”
Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress
(Lyrics from Justify My Love).