Quotes about man
page 44

“There is no truer gauge of a man's character than the way in which he employs his strength, his power.”

Jim Butcher book Storm Front

Source: Storm Front

Way, Gauge

“Because sometimes, a man could do nothing about where he came from, he could only control where he went”

Lora Leigh (1965) American writer

Source: Killer Secrets

“Brandon is just the kind of man whom every body speaks well of, and nobody cares about; whom all are delighted to see, and nobody remembers to talk to.”

Jane Austen book Sense and Sensibility

Source: Sense and Sensibility

“I was once a fortunate man but at some point fortune abandoned me.
But true good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, and good actions.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

“Any group is weaker than a man alone unless they are perfectly trained to work together.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Starship Troopers

Source: Starship Troopers

Training

“One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.”

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

Source: A Thousand & One Epigrams: Selected from the Writings of Elbert Hubbard (1911), p. 151

Men

“The Superior Man is aware of Righteousness, the inferior man is aware of advantage.”

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

The virtuous man is driven by responsibility, the non-virtuous man is driven by profit. [by 朱冀平]
The Analects, Chapter I, Chapter IV

“Men learn to love the woman they are attracted to. Women learn to become attracted to the man they fall in love with.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Love, Women, Men, Learning

“Real generosity is anonymous to the extent that a man should be prepared even to be considered ungenerous rather than explain it to others.”

Idries Shah book Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way

Source: Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way

“If this man had not twelve thousand a year, he would be a very stupid fellow.”

Jane Austen book Mansfield Park

Source: Mansfield Park

Stupidity

“If wits were pins, the man would be a veritable hedgehog.”

Frances Hardinge book Fly by Night

Source: Fly by Night

“When a man is in love very little is enough to throw him into despair and as little to enhance his joy to the utmost.”

Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice

Love, Joy, Despair

“A woman may be beautiful but have poor character. A man may be a business genius, making money left and right, but lack common courtesy, sensitivity, and compassion.”

Myles Munroe (1954–2014) Bahamian Evangelical Christian minister

Source: Waiting and Dating

Money, Beauty, Business

“I am unable to understand how a man of honor could take a newspaper in his hands without a shudder of disgust.”

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) French poet

Understanding

“Be grateful that you only see the outward man. Be grateful that you never see the passions, the hatreds, the jealousies, the malice, the sicknesses… Be grateful you rarely see the frightening truth in people.”

Alfred Bester book The Demolished Man

Source: The Demolished Man

People, Truth, Jealousy, Passion

“And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worth while, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction: "I served in the United States Navy."”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Remarks at the U.S. Naval Academy (1 August 1963), Public Papers of the Presidents 321, p. 620
1963

Life, Thinking

“A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself.”

Emily Brontë (1818–1848) English novelist and poet

“As I fear not a child with a weapon he cannot lift, I will never fear the mind of a man who does not think.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

Fear, Thinking

“Do you believe a man can truly love a woman and constantly betray her? Never mind physically but betray her in his mind, in the very "poetry of his soul". Well, it's not easy but men do it all the time.”

Mario Puzo book Fools Die

Source: Fools Die

Love, Men, Soul, Time

“What profit it a man if he gain the whole world but in this enterprise lose his soul?”

Philip K. Dick book The Man in the High Castle

Source: The Man in the High Castle

World, Soul

“Marriage is an alliance entered into by a man who can't sleep with the window shut, and a woman who can't sleep with the window open.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Marriage, Sleep, Anniversary

“I have a dream!
To be free at last!
Free at last!
Free at last.
And if a man has nothing to die for,
Then his life is worth nothing.”

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

Life, Dreams

“I guess it wasn't everyday they see a yellow lifeboat with no engine going a hundred knots an hour, manned by three kids.”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

“This man is the bee's knees, Arthur, he is the wasp's nipples. He is, I would go so far as to say, the entire set of erogenous zones of every major flying insect of the Western world.”

Douglas Adams book So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Source: So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

World, Bee, Flying

“As I know more of mankind, I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

1783, p. 519
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV

“It's all very well to put the government in the hands of the perfect man, but what do you do when the perfect man gets a bellyache?”

David Eddings book Belgarath the Sorcerer

Source: Belgarath the Sorcerer

Perfection

“He asked, "What makes a man a writer?" "Well," I said, "it's simple. You either get it down on paper, or jump off a bridge.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

“No word matters. But man forgets reality and remembers words.”

Roger Zelazny Lord of Light

Source: Lord of Light

Reality, Forgetting

“Status ought not to be measured by a woman's ability to attract and snare a man.”

Germaine Greer book The Female Eunuch

Source: The Female Eunuch

“Let woman out of the home, let man into it, should be the aim of education. The home needs man, and the world outside needs woman.”

Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American writer

World, Education, Home

“I felt his hot tears and the loneliness of man and the sweetness of all men and the aching haunting beauty of the living”

John Fante book Full of Life

Source: Full of Life

Men, Beauty, Tear, Loneliness

“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”

L. Frank Baum book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Source: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

“Beckendorf walked up with his helmet under his arm. 'She likes you, man.'
'Sure,' I muttered. 'She likes me for target practice.'
'Nah, they always do that. A girl starts trying to kill you, you know she's into you.
'Makes a lot of sense.”

Rick Riordan book The Demigod Files

Source: The Demigod Files

Girl, Sense

“Man’s wants remain unsatisfied till death.
Then, when his soul is naked, is he one
With the man in the wind, and the west moon,
With the harmonious thunder of the sun”

Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) Welsh poet and writer

Death, Soul, Sun

“Let him think I am more man than I am and I will be so.”

Ernest Hemingway book The Old Man and the Sea

Source: The Old Man and the Sea (1952)

Thinking

“When a man is out of sight, it is not too long before he is out of mind.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

“Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Life, Money, Evil

“Dragons and legends… It would have been difficult for any man not to want to fight beside a dragon.”

Patricia Briggs (1965) American writer

Source: Dragon Blood

Fight

“How foolish it is to run away with a man who's already run away with someone else…”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Mercy

“A slave cannot be freed, save he do it himself. Nor can you enslave a free man; the very most you can do is kill him!”

Robert A. Heinlein book Double Star

Source: Double Star

“Woman wants monogamy;
Man delights in novelty.
Love is woman's moon and sun;
Man has other forms of fun.
Woman lives but in her lord;
Count to ten, and man is bored.
With this the gist and sum of it,
What earthly good can come of it?”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Love, Sun

“Coach said. "the quality of a man's life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor".”

Sherman Alexie book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Source: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Life, Wise

“Man must choose whether to be rich in things or in the freedom to use them.”

Ivan Illich (1926–2002) austrian philosopher and theologist

Freedom

“You've always had me… and my heart. My soul. Everything. I wish it hadn't taken this long for me to man up.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover at Last

Soul, Heart

“The great secret of true success, of true happiness, is this: the man or woman who asks for no return, the perfectly unselfish person, is the most successful.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Happiness, Secret, Success, Personality

“She let him finish, scratching his head with the tips of her fingers, and without his having revealed that he was weeping from love, she recognized immediately the oldest sobs in the history of man.”

Gabriel García Márquez book One Hundred Years of Solitude

Source: Cem Anos de Solidão

Love, History

“You know how hard it is to feel like an extreme falcon-headed combat machine when somebody calls you "chicken man"?”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Feeling

“Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure that there is one less scoundrel in the world.”

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

Source: On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History

World

“Some things, when they change, never do return to the way they once were. Butterflies for instance, and women who've been in love with the wrong man too often.”

Alice Hoffman book Practical Magic

Source: Practical Magic

Love, Women, Way, Change

“So I’m into men now, even though they can be frightening. I want a schedule-keeping, waking-up-early, wallet-carrying, non-Velcro-shoe-wearing man.”

Mindy Kaling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Source: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Men, Shoe

“That is what I like; that is what a young man ought to be. Whatever be his pursuits, his eagerness in them should know no moderation, and leave him no sense of fatigue.”

Jane Austen book Sense and Sensibility

Source: Sense and Sensibility

Sense

“Man moves in a world that is nothing more or less than his consciousness objectified.–Neville Goddard”

Neville Goddard (1905–1972) American author and lecturer

World

“I'm man enough to know when to scream.”

Obert Skye (1970) American writer

Source: Pillage

“A man who lifts his chin in pride will fail to see the chasm at his feet.”

Alison Goodman (1966) Australian science-fiction writer

Source: Eona: The Last Dragoneye

“No, he wasn't a pig. He was a lonely, hurt man who didn't know how to cope in a world that had turned its back on him. [Astrid]”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

World, Hurt

“In a low whisper she was certain only her friend could
hear, she said, "I specifically remember we both promised never to drink from any man's goblet of wine. From the looks of you, Frances Catherine, I'm thinking you broke your word.”

Julie Garwood (1946) American writer

Source: The Secret

Drink, Thinking, Wine

“Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective in this kind of story must be such a man. He is the hero, he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor, by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.”

Raymond Chandler book The Simple Art of Murder

essay, first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly (November, 1945)
The Simple Art of Murder (1950)

World, Weather

“If a man has to say trust me it's a sure sign you cannot. Trust him, that is. Trust is a thing you do without words.”

Juliet Marillier book Wildwood Dancing

Variant: If a man has to say trust me, Gogu conveyed, it's a sure sign you cannot. Trust him, that is. Trust is a thing you know without words.
Source: Wildwood Dancing

“You could tell a lot about a man by the books he keeps - his tastes, his interest, his habits.”

Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) German literary critic, philosopher and social critic (1892-1940)

Source: Illuminations: Essays and Reflections

Books

“… sometimes when we are beating ourselves up, we need to stop and say to that harassing voice inside, "Man, I'm doing the very best I can right now."”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: Rising Strong

“Perfection' is man's ultimate illusion. It simply doesn't exist in the universe…. If you are a perfectionist, you are guaranteed to be a loser in whatever you do.”

David D. Burns (1942) American psychiatrist

Universe, Perfection

“You shall judge of a man by his foes as well as by his friends.”

Joseph Conrad Lord Jim

Source: Lord Jim

“There wasn't a woman alive who could resist a man who paid attention to her, who made her feel like she was the only other person in his world.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: A Dark Kiss of Rapture

World, Feeling, Personality

“Once you've chosen a man, don't try to change him', I wrote with more confidence. 'It can't be done. More important-don't let him try to change you.”

Diana Gabaldon book Voyager

Source: Voyager

Confidence, Change

“I knew my dad was a good man, a kind man, and though he'd led a wounded life, he'd done the best he could in raising me.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Best of Me

John Tyree, Chapter 16, p. 198
2000s, Dear John (2006)
Source: The Best of Me

Life

“And in that fraction of a second before anything actually happened, Santino Corleone knew he was a dead man.”

Mario Puzo The Godfather

Source: The Godfather

Dead

“Without a sign, his sword the brave man draws, and asks no omen, but his country's cause.”

Homér Iliad

Source: The Iliad

Drawing, Country

“Is Loor a man's name or a woman's name?" Aja, TRB.
It is the name of a female warrior." Loor, TRB.
What did she do that was so heroic?" Aja, TRB
She killed her enemies and ate them." Loor, TRB.”

D.J. MacHale (1955) American television director and producer

“It struck me that Albania was the sort of place that might keep a man from yawning.”

John Buchan (1875–1940) British politician

Source: The 39 Steps

“The only problem with one-man woman was that he was not a one-woman man.”

Rachel Gibson (1961) American writer

Source: I'm In No Mood For Love

Problem

“It is right to chide man for being blind to such coincidences in his daily life. For he thereby deprives his life of a dimension of beauty.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Two: Soul and Body, p. 50

Life, Beauty

“Chumps always make the best husbands. When you marry, Sally, grab a chump. Tap his head first, and if it rings solid, don't hesitate. All the unhappy marriages come from husbands having brains. What good are brains to a man? They only unsettle him.”

P.G. Wodehouse book Doctor Sally

Source: Doctor Sally

Marriage

“Nothing gives a fearful man more courage than another's fear.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

Variant: Nothing gives a fearful man more courage than another's fear.”" -
Source: The Name of the Rose

Fear, Courage, Courageous

“I would catch sight of some flawless man off in the distance, but as soon as he moved closer I immediately saw he wouldn’t do at all.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Variant: The same thing happened over and over: I would catch sight of some flawless man in the distance, but as soon as he moved closer I immediately saw he wouldn’t do at all.
Source: The Bell Jar

“Humour is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of man's superiority to all that befalls him.”

Romain Gary (1914–1980) French writer and diplomat

As quoted in The Harper Book of Quotations (1993) by Robert I. Fitzhenry, p. 223