Quotes about man
page 41

“Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.”

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat

Literary Essays, vol. II (1870–1890), Rousseau and the Sentimentalists

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Light, Selfishness

“Every man has within himself the entire human condition”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book III, Ch. 2
Essais (1595), Book III
Variant: Every man bears the whole stamp of the human condition.

“I could not be happy with a man whose taste did not in every point coincide with my own. He must enter in all my feelings; the same books, the same music must charm us both.”

Jane Austen book Sense and Sensibility

Source: Sense and Sensibility

Happiness, Books, Music, Feeling

“A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

Flowers

“Man, being reasonable, must get drunk; the best of life is but intoxication.”

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement

Life

“I really wish I was less of a thinking man and more of a fool not afraid of rejection.”

Billy Joel (1949) American singer-songwriter and pianist

Fools, Thinking

“Including a mention of your impressive record…. The man who had penetrated and copied over a thousand techniques.. Kakashi the mirror ninja.”

Masashi Kishimoto book Naruto

Source: Naruto, Vol. 02: The Worst Client

“Of this she was perfectly unaware; to her he was only the man who had made himself agreeable nowhere, and who had not thought her handsome enough to dance with.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

Dance

“Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind; for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey of the rich on the poor.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to Colonel Edward Carrington (16 January 1787)
1780s
Variant: Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind; for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey of the rich on the poor.
Source: Letters of Thomas Jefferson

Animals

“And where, I ask you, can a man escape to, when he hasn’t enough madness left inside him? The truth is an endless death agony. The truth is death. You have to choose: death or lies. I’ve never been able to kill myself.”

Louis-ferdinand Céline book Journey to the End of the Night

Source: Journey to the End of the Night

Death, Truth, Madness

“One man's faith is another man's delusion”

Anthony Storr (1920–2001) English psychiatrist

Faith

“Man is ultimately concerned about that which determines his ultimate destiny beyond all preliminary necessities and accidents.”

Paul Tillich (1886–1965) German-American theologian and philosopher

Systematic Theology (1951–63)
Context: Man is infinitely concerned about the infinity to which he belongs, from which he is separated, and for which he is longing. Man is totally concerned about the totality which is his true being and which is disrupted in time and space. Man is unconditionally concerned about that which conditions his being beyond all the conditions in him and around him. Man is ultimately concerned about that which determines his ultimate destiny beyond all preliminary necessities and accidents.

“I cried because I had no shoes. Then I met a man who had no feet.”

Wally Lamb (1950) american novelist

Shoe, Heart Touching

“There is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of man.”

Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet

Variant: for there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men
Source: Moby-Dick or, The Whale

Madness

“Happiness was useless to me. It was heartache that filled my purse. What happy man has need of Shakespeare?”

Jennifer Donnelly book Revolution

Source: Revolution

Happiness

“She didn't like the fact that she had reduced a man – no matter how evil he might be—to a drooling idiot.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Evil

“No one will ever forget that night, and what it meant for this country. But I will never forget the man and what he meant to me.”

Alan Moore V for Vendetta

Source: V for Vendetta

Night, Country, Forgetting

“A man with a club [bat] is a law-maker, a man to be obeyed, but not necessarily conciliated.”

Jack London book Call of the Wild

Source: The Call of the Wild

Law

“A man may debar nonsense from his library of reason, but not from the arena of his impulses.”

Rex Stout book The League of Frightened Men

Source: The League of Frightened Men

“there are very few who can think, but every man wants to have an opinion; and what remains but to take it ready-made from others, instead of forming opinions for himself?”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Source: The Art of Always Being Right

Thinking

“The proud person always wants to do the right thing, the great thing. But because he wants to do it in his own strength, he is fighting not with man, but with God.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

God, Fight, Personality

“If industrial man continues to multiply his numbers and expand his operations he will succeed in his apparent intention, to seal himself off from the natural and isolate himself within a synthetic prison of his own making.”

Edward Abbey book Desert Solitaire

Source: Desert Solitaire

Nature

“In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”

August Wilson Gem of the Ocean

Source: Gem of the Ocean

“Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story
of that man skilled in all ways of contending,
the wanderer, harried for years on end”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

Source: The Odyssey

Way, Singing

“It has been well said that an author who expects results from a first novel is in a position similar to that of a man who drops a rose petal down the Grand Canyon of Arizona and listens for the echo.”

P.G. Wodehouse book Cocktail Time

Source: Cocktail Time (1958)

“What is the quality you most like in a man?
The ability to return books.”

David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger

Books

“And so they played some of the world's loveliest piano music - the exiled homesick girl, the humiliated, tired old man. Not properly. Better than that.”

Eva Ibbotson book A Countess Below Stairs

Source: A Countess Below Stairs

World, Music, Girl

“A woman is not to marry a man merely because she is asked, or because he is attached to her, and can write a tolerable letter.”

Jane Austen book Emma

Source: Emma

“Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

"Reluctance", st. 4 (1913)
1910s

Love, Heart, Season

“Women still dream and hope, pin their emotions on some man who doesn't reciprocate, and end up in confusion.”

Elisabeth Elliot book Passion and Purity

Source: Passion and Purity

Women, Dreams, Hope

“Every man with a little leisure and enough money for railway tickets, every man, indeed, who knows how to read, has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

Source: Jesting Pilate

Life, Money, Way, Reading

“I find more and more that I am a man of the 1920s. I still expect something exciting. Drinks, animated conversation, gaiety: the uninhibited exchange of ideas.”

Edmund Wilson (1895–1972) American writer, literary and social critic, and noted man of letters

Idea, Drink, Animals

“A conservative is a man who is too cowardly to fight and too fat to run.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

Fight

“We're paying the highest tribute you can pay a man. We trust him to do right. It's that simple.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

“In my sentences I go where no man has gone before.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

“A man kills the thing he loves, and he must die a little himself.”

Clive Barker book Imajica

Source: Imajica

Love

“If the stars should appear but one night every thousand years how man would marvel and adore.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson book Nature

Source: 1830s, Nature http://www.emersoncentral.com/nature.htm (1836), Ch. 1, Nature Context: If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! Context: If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.

Star, Appearance, Night

“The nobler sort of man emphasizes the good qualities in others, and does not accentuate the bad. The inferior does.”

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

“Every man kills the things that he loves. Some with a look, some with flattery, the coward with a kiss.”

Eric Jerome Dickey (1961) American author

Source: Cheaters

Love, Kiss

“It's only when a man tames his own demons that he becomes the king of himself if not of the world.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

Comments on a passage in Where the Wild Things Are (1963) by Maurice Sendak, as quoted by Bill Moyers in "NOW with Bill Moyers", PBS (12 March 2004) http://www.pbs.org/now/arts/sendak.html Source: The Hero With a Thousand Faces

World

“The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster.”

David Hume (1711–1776) Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian

Source: On Suicide

Life, Universe

“Death isn't enough. It doesn't remove the stain. But a slap, a whiplash, square on the face, does. Because a man's face is as sacred as his mother or his wife.”

Mario Vargas Llosa book The War of the End of the World

Source: The War of the End of the World

Death

“When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.”

George Bernard Shaw Caesar and Cleopatra

Act III http://books.google.com/books?id=3wAOAQAAMAAJ Source: 1890s, Caesar and Cleopatra (1898)

Stupidity

“I have to tell you, man, that my stalker meter is kind of registering in the red zone right now.”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

“Man is born to live, to suffer, and to die, and what befalls him is a tragic lot. There is no denying this in the final end. But we must deny it all along the way.”

Thomas Wolfe (1900–1938) American writer

Way, Suffering

“A man's admiration for absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him.”

Alexis De Tocqueville book The Old Regime and the Revolution

Original text: Les despotes eux-mêmes ne nient pas que la liberté ne soit excellente ; seulement ils ne la veulent que pour eux-mêmes, et ils soutiennent que tous les autres en sont tout à fait indignes. Ainsi, ce n'est pas sur l'opinion qu'on doit avoir de la liberté qu'on diffère, mais sur l'estime plus au moins grande qu'on fait des hommes ; et c'est ainsi qu'on peut dire d'une façon rigoureuse que le goût qu'on montre pour le gouvernement absolu est dans le rapport exact du mépris qu'on professe pour son pays.
Ancien Regime and the Revolution (L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution) (fourth edition, 1858), de Tocqueville, tr. Gerald Bevan, Penguin UK (2008), Author’s Foreword :
1850s and later
Variant: We can state with conviction, therefore, that a man's support for absolute government is in direct proportion to the contempt he feels for his country.
Context: Even despots accept the excellence of liberty. The simple truth is that they wish to keep it for themselves and promote the idea that no one else is at all worthy of it. Thus, our opinion of liberty does not reveal our differences but the relative value which we place on our fellow man. We can state with conviction, therefore, that a man's support for absolute government is in direct proportion to the contempt he feels for his country.

Feeling

“Your own space, man, it's so important. That's why we were doomed because we didn't have any. It is like monkeys in a zoo. They die. You know, everything needs to be left alone.”

George Harrison book I, Me, Mine

Source: I, Me, Mine

“The shaman is not merely a sick man, or a madman; he is a sick man who has healed himself.”

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist

Source: The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens & the I Ching

“If only I can find him… the man who will be intelligent, yet physically magnetic and personable. If I can offer that combination, why shouldn't I expect it in a man?”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Intelligence, Personality

“I would give up everything for you, Giulia"
I smiled at him gently. "But you must understand. I should never want a man to give up anything for me. I should want him to feel in winning me he has won the whole world…”

Deanna Raybourn (1968) American writer

Source: Silent in the Sanctuary

World, Smile, Feeling, Understanding

“Cassie Wright knows, the moment you make yourself available to any man, he starts to take you for granted”

Chuck Palahniuk Snuff

Source: Snuff

“When bad fortune occurs, the unresourceful, unimaginative man looks about him to attach the blame to someone else; the resolute accepts misfortune and endeavors to survive, mature, and improve because of it.”

Anne McCaffrey Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern

Source: Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern 1983

“Then a homeless man with a dog approached us and put his hand out. This happens to be something that I have a real problem with: homeless people with pets who approach you for food when they have a perfectly delicious dog standing right there?”

Chelsea Handler book Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea

Source: Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea

People, Food, Dogs, Problem

“When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

An explanation of relativity which he gave to his secretary Helen Dukas to convey to non-scientists and reporters, as quoted in Best Quotes of '54, '55, l56 (1957) by James B. Simpson; also in Expandable Quotable Einstein (2005) edited by Alice Calaprice William Hermanns recorded a series of four conversations he had with Einstein and published them in his book Einstein and the Poet (1983), quoting Einstein saying this variant in a 1948 conversation: "To simplify the concept of relativity, I always use the following example: if you sit with a girl on a garden bench and the moon is shining, then for you the hour will be a minute. However, if you sit on a hot stove, the minute will be an hour." ( p. 87 http://books.google.com/books?id=QXCyjj6T5ZUC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA87#v=onepage&q&f=false) In the 1985 book Einstein in America, Jamie Sayen wrote "Einstein devised the following explanation for her [Helen Dukas] to give when asked to explain relativity: An hour sitting with a pretty girl on a park bench passes like a minute, but a minute sitting on a hot stove seems like an hour." ( p. 130 http://books.google.com/books?ei=yma3TsDWK8WciQL63smAAQ&ct=book-thumbnail&id=vs3aAAAAMAAJ&dq=sayen+%22einstein+in+america%22&q=pretty+girl#search_anchor) Attributed in posthumous publications Variant: When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity.

Girl, Funny

“No state, no government exists. What does in fact exist is a man, or a few men, in power over many men.”

Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968) American journalist

Give Me Liberty (1936)
Context: The picture of the economic revolution as the final step to freedom was false as soon as I asked myself that question. For, in actual fact, The State, The Government, cannot exist. They are abstract concepts, useful enough in their place, as the theory of minus numbers is useful in mathematics. In actual living experience, however, it is impossible to subtract anything from nothing; when a purse is empty, it is empty, it cannot contain a minus ten dollars. On this same plane of actuality, no State, no Government, exists. What does in fact exist is a man, or a few men, in power over many men.

Men

“Recklessness is almost a man's revenge on his woman. He feels he is not valued so he will risk destroying himself to deprive her altogether.”

D.H. Lawrence book Sons and Lovers

Source: Sons and Lovers

Feeling, Revenge

“The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all time.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

People, Time

“It's fear, Jack. The man deals with a huge amount of fear.'
Because he got hurt?'
No, not entirely. Fear comes with imagination, it's a penalty, it's the price of imagination.”

Thomas Harris Red Dragon

Source: Red Dragon

Fear, Penalty, Imagination, Hurt

“Man's mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild.”

James Allen book As a Man Thinketh

Source: As a Man Thinketh

Intelligence

“Don't. Tell me when, then. And before you say never, take a good look at me and tell me if you see a man who's easily deterred.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

“Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that some spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Letter to Phyllis Wright (January 24, 1936), published in Dear Professor Einstein: Albert Einstein's Letters to and from Children (Prometheus Books, 2002), p. 129
1930s

Law, Universe, Science

“There is probably no more terrible instant of enlightenment than the one in which you discover your father is a man - with human flesh.”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune

“Then you're a bigger fool than I thought. Since when has any man ever been worthy of the woman he loved? It's only by God's grace that they love us in spite of ourselves.”

Teresa Medeiros (1962) American writer

Source: The Bride and the Beast

Love, God, Fools

“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.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. book Strength to Love

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.

Time, Courageous, Life, Business

“When Stephen King elaborated on his inspirations for his novel "Carrie" he draws from a time when he was a young man, and describes his impression when he came upon a statue of Christ on the cross, hanging there in misery, and he thought”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Time, Christ, Drawing

“I ejaculated about ten minutes ago and the stuff was black. So everything is not normal."

Silence greeted that happy little announcement. Man, if he had hauled off and sucker-punched V, he would have gotten less of a shocked-out reaction.”

Jessica Bird book Lover Revealed

Source: Lover Revealed

Happiness, Silence

“What are you" -Mac

"I don't follow" -Jericho

"You dropped 30 feet in that warehouse. You should have broken something. What are you?" -Mac

"A man with a rope." -Jericho”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

Source: Darkfever

“I believe it, Chronicler found himself thinking. Before it was just a story, but now I can believe it. This is the face of a man who has killed an angel.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

Angels, Thinking

“I distrust a man that says when. If he's got to be careful not to drink to much it's because he's not to be trusted when he does.”

Dashiell Hammett book The Maltese Falcon

Chap. 11, "The Fat Man"
Dialogue between the characters Kasper Gutman (the "fat man") and Sam Spade.
Source: The Maltese Falcon (1930)
Context: "We begin well, sir," the fat man purred … "I distrust a man that says when. If he's got to be careful not to drink too much it's because he's not to be trusted when he does. … Well, sir, here's to plain speaking and clear understanding. … You're a close-mouthed man?"
Spade shook his head. "I like to talk."
"Better and better!" the fat man exclaimed. "I distrust a close-mouthed man. He generally picks the wrong time to talk and says the wrong things. Talking's something you can't do judiciously unless you keep in practice."

Drink