Quotes about man
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“Prisons are the temples where devils learn to prey. Every time we turn the key we twist the knife of fate, because every time we cage a man we close him in with hate.”

Gregory David Roberts book Shantaram

Source: Shantaram

Hate, Fate, Learning, Time

“The metaphor is perhaps one of man's most fruitful potentialities.”

José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955) Spanish liberal philosopher and essayist

"Taboo and Metaphor"
The Dehumanization of Art and Ideas about the Novel (1925)
Context: The metaphor is perhaps one of man's most fruitful potentialities. Its efficacy verges on magic, and it seems a tool for creation which God forgot inside one of His creatures when He made him. All our other faculties keep us within the realm of the real, of what is already there. The most we can do is to combine things or to break them up. The metaphor alone furnishes an escape; between the real things, it lets emerge imaginary reefs, a crop of floating islands. A strange thing, indeed, the existence in man of this mental activity which substitutes one thing for another — from an urge not so much to get at the first as to get rid of the second.

“The man with a toothache thinks everyone happy whose teeth are sound. The poverty stricken man makes the same mistake about the rich man.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

#107
1900s, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)

Happiness, Thinking

“Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity.”

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) German philosopher

What is Enlightenment? (1784)
Context: Enlightenment is man’s leaving his self-caused immaturity. Immaturity is the incapacity to use one's intelligence without the guidance of another.
Context: Enlightenment is man’s leaving his self-caused immaturity. Immaturity is the incapacity to use one's intelligence without the guidance of another. Such immaturity is self-caused if it is not caused by lack of intelligence, but by lack of determination and courage to use one's intelligence without being guided by another. Sapere Aude! Have the courage to use your own intelligence! is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.

“It is desirable that a man live in all respects so simply and preparedly that if an enemy take the town… he can walk out the gate empty-handed and without anxiety.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Source: Walden

“My father always said that too many words cheapened the value of a man's speech.”

Patricia Briggs (1965) American writer

Source: Raven's Shadow

“A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself.”

Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) French writer and dramatist, father of the homonym writer and dramatist

Personality

“If he’d been any other man and i'd been any other girl, I’d have called the narrowing of his heavy-lidded dark eyes lust. But he was Barrons and I was Mac, and a blossoming of lust was about as likely as orchids blooming in Antarctica”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Bloodfever

Girl

“There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue. Live being true to the single purpose of the moment.”

Tsunetomo Yamamoto book Hagakure

Hagakure (c. 1716)
Source: Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai
Context: There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue. Live being true to the single purpose of the moment.
Everyone lets the present moment slip by, then looks for it as though he thought it were somewhere else.

Life, Understanding, Success

“To be happy with a man you must understand him a lot and love him a little. To be happy with a woman you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all.”

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (1938) American historian

Source: Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History

Love, Happiness, Understanding

“What a man wants is a mate and what a woman wants is infinite security.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar

“Now I understand,” said the last man.”

Arthur C. Clarke book Childhood's End

Source: Childhood's End

Understanding

“Musically, he was like an old man in a boy's skin.”

Eric Clapton (1945) English musician, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

Music, Boy

“No. You don't get to call me Izzy, you don't send me letters, you don't follow me into dark corridors and try to save me from rats."
"Trust me, we see a rat, it's every man for himself.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Evil We Love

“The man who must brag for himself knows that no one else will”

Robin Hobb book Royal Assassin

Source: Royal Assassin

“One
man’s “ugly” is another man’s “beautiful.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl—A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship

Beauty

“Time is not the great teacher. Experience is. A man may live a whole life, but if he never leaves his home to experience that life, he dies knowing nothing. A mere child who has suffered and lived can be the wiser of the two.”

Lynsay Sands Canadian writer

Source: Love Bites

Life, Home, Suffering, Teachers

“Monsieur' to a convict is a glass of water to a man dying of thirst at sea; ignominy thirsts for respect.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Water, Sea

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. The Talmud tells us that by saving a single human being, man can save the world.”

Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor

Hope, Despair, and Memory (1986)

World, Time

“The Man who says he can, and the man who says he can not.. Are both correct”

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

“I watched the spinning stars, grateful, sad and proud, as only a man who has outlived his destiny and realizes he might yet forge himself another, can be.”

Roger Zelazny Isle of the Dead

Source: Isle of the Dead (1969), Chapter 1 (pp. 29-30)

Sadness, Star

“The man whose eye is single for the glory of Another can be trusted.”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

Source: Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot

“A wise man once remarked that we can count how many seeds are in the apple, but not how many apples are in the seed.”

Wendy Mass Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

Source: Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

“I need solitude for my writing; not 'like a hermit' - that wouldn't be enough - but like a dead man.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

Solitude, Dead

“Slavery… dishonors labor. It introduces idleness into society, and with idleness, ignorance and pride, luxury and distress. It enervates the powers of the mind and benumbs the activity of man.”

Alexis De Tocqueville book Democracy in America

Source: Democracy in America

“Just one time…. When you know who I am. Let me be your man." ~ JZB”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Variant: When you know who I am. Let me be your man.
Source: Shadowfever

Time

“… One of the reasons so many women say "I'm not a feminist but…" (and then put forward a feminist position), is that in addition to being stereotyped as man-hating Amazons, feminists have also been cast as antifamily and antimotherhood.”

Susan J. Douglas (1950) writer

Women, Hate

“In short, over the last ten years the Negro decided to straighten his back up, realizing that a man cannot ride your back unless it is bent.”

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

1960s, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)

“Remember that the best and greatest among mankind are those who do themselves no worldly good. Every successful man is more or less a selfish man. The devoted fail…”

Thomas Hardy book Jude the Obscure

Source: Jude the Obscure

Success, Selfishness

“Beauty without wit offers nothing but the enjoyment of its material charms, whilst witty ugliness captivates by the charms of the mind, and at last fulfils all the desires of the man it has captivated.”

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

Source: The Story of My Life

Beauty

“What's your road, man? - holyboy road, madman road, rainbow road, guppy road, any road. It's an anywhere road for anybody anyhow. Where body how?”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Source: On the Road: The Original Scroll

“There is no man living who isn't capable of doing more than he thinks he can do.”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

Thinking

“It turns out that one can perpetrate all manner of heinous villainy under a cloak of courtesy and good cheer… a man will forfeit all sensible self-interest if he finds you affable enough to share your company over a flagon of ale.”

Christopher Moore book Fool

Source: Fool

“The great and glorious masterpiece of man is to live with purpose.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

“Maybe they know what I know, that the true way to a man's heart is six inches of metal between his ribs. Sometimes four inches will do the job, but to be really sure, I like to have six.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Narcissus in Chains

Source: Narcissus in Chains

Way, Heart

“a man doesn't prove he's a man by getting an erection. He's only a real man if he can pleasure a woman. And if he can pleasure a prostitute, he'll think he's the best lover on the block" -Nyah”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes

Pleasure, Lovers, Thinking

“In every letter, in every line, she saw him. He hadn't changed - he'd only grown into the man he'd meant to be.”

Diana Peterfreund (1979) American writer

Source: For Darkness Shows the Stars

Change

“Man is a demon, man is a god. Both true.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

God

“Each man dreams his own heaven.”

John Connolly The Book of Lost Things

Source: The Book of Lost Things

Dreams

“But I guess you would look beatific, too, if the man you had been in love with since the fifth grade had told you that he was in love with you, too.”

Meg Cabot book Teen Idol

Source: Teen Idol

Love

“What good are laws that cannot be read or understood, or a tongue that spews only hatred or ignorance? What good is the written word to an illiterate man?”

Delores Phillips (1950–2014) American writer

Source: The Darkest Child

Law, Reading

“Man, wow, there's so many things to do, so many things to write! How to even begin to get it all down and without modified restraints and all hung-up on like literary inhibitions and grammatical fears…”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

Fear

“Nothing moves a woman so deeply as the boyhood of the man she loves.”

Annie Dillard (1945) American writer

Love

“Governments will rise, and governments will fall, and man will do evil to man, and all we can do is turn our hearts to good.”

Margaret Peterson Haddix book Among the Enemy

Source: Among the Enemy

Evil, Heart

“A man is known by the books he reads.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Books, Reading

“Every man dies. Not every man lives.”

Anthony Robbins (1960) Author, actor, professional speaker

Life, Business, For Men

“Do you know why a vandal is worse than a thief?’ asked the man on the right, in a soft growl. ‘A thief steals a treasure from its owner. A vandal steals it from the world.”

Frances Hardinge (1973) British children's writer

Source: A Face Like Glass

World

“This should be agony. I should be a mass of aching muscle - broken, spent, unable to move. And, were I an older man, I surely would…… but I'm a man of thirty - of twenty again. The rain on my chest is a baptism - I'm born again…”

Frank Miller The Dark Knight Returns

Source: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

“It was deeply a part of Lee's kindness and understanding that man's right to kill himself is inviolable, but sometimes a friend can make it unnecessary”

John Steinbeck book Cannery Row

Source: Cannery Row

Understanding, Parting

“The important thing is that man is lost in time, in the moment that immediately precedes him - which only attests, by reflection, to the fact that he is lost in the moment that follows”

André Breton (1896–1966) French writer

Time

“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

September 20, 1777, p. 356
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III
Source: The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol 3

Life

“Now, five years is nothing in a man's life except when he is very young and very old…

- Wang Lung”

Pearl S. Buck book The Good Earth

Source: The Good Earth

Life

“Krishna was once asked what was the most miraculous thing in all creation, and he replied, "That a man should wake each morning and believe deep in his heart that he will live forever, even though he knows that he is doomed.”

Christopher Pike (1954) American author Kevin Christopher McFadden

Source: Phantom

Heart

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Source: Walden

Inspirational, For Men

“No other human being, no woman, no poem or music, book, or painting can replace alcohol in its power to give man the illusion of real creation.”

Marguerite Duras (1914–1996) French writer and film director

Alcohol, Books, Music, Painting

“A boy who won't stand up for himself becomes a man who can't stand up to anything.”

Khaled Hosseini (1965) novelist

Boy

“But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and vulgar things.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson book Nature

Source: Nature

World, Star

“All that was required to measure the planet was a man with a stick and a brain. In other words, couple an intellect with some experimental apparatus and almost anything seems achievable.”

Simon Singh (1964) British author

Source: Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe

“When a man's best friend is his dog, that dog has a problem.”

Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist

Dogs, Problem, Friendship, For Friend

“Fanny! You are killing me!"
"No man dies of love but on the stage, Mr. Crawford.”

Jane Austen book Mansfield Park

Source: Mansfield Park

Love

“If he were any other man, I might have suspected him of substance abuse, of being coked up or something. But Barrons was too much a purist for that; his drugs were money, power, and control”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

Source: Darkfever

Money

“Most suits made the man. Gideon did things to a three-piece suit that should've been illegal.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Variant: Most suits made the man. Gideon did things to a three-piece suit that should be illegal.
Source: Reflected in You

“Man never thinks himself happy, but when he enjoys those things which others want or desire.”

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet

Happiness, Thinking

“The less worth of a man, the greater his pride.”

Yukito Kishiro (1967) Japanese manga artist

“Don't make light of any man's pain.”

Patricia Briggs (1965) American writer

Source: When Demons Walk

Pain, Light

“Man wanted a home, a place for warmth, or comfort, first of physical warmth, then the warmth of the affections.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Source: Walden

Home

“But no man's a hero to himself.”

Ray Bradbury book Something Wicked This Way Comes

Source: Something Wicked This Way Comes

“Man was made for joy and woe,
And when this we rightly know
Through the world we safely go.
Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

Source: 1800s, Auguries of Innocence (1803), Line 56. Compare Psalm 30:5 (KJV): "weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

World, Soul, Joy, Clothes

“Never test another man by your own weakness.”

Joseph Conrad Lord Jim

Source: Lord Jim

“A melancholy-looking man, he had the appearance of one who has searched for the leak in life's gas-pipe with a lighted candle.”

P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author

Variant: He was a Frenchman, a melancholy-looking man. His aspect was that of one who has been looking for the leak in a gas pipe with a lighted candle.
Source: The Man Upstairs and Other Stories

Life, Search, Light, Appearance