Quotes about man page 49
“The free man never thinks of escape.”
Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer
Source: Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles
“When things get too heavy, just call me helium, the lightest known gas to man.”
Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) American musician, singer and songwriter
Katie MacAlister (1964) Author
Source: Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
Source: The Analects of Confucius
“Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Self-Reliance
Source: Self-Reliance and Other Essays
Context: Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.
Context: Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.
“A man must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur, and dreaming is nursed in darkness.”
Jean Genet (1910–1986) French novelist, playwright, poet and political activist
“When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: 'Whose?”
Don Marquis (1878–1937) American writer
“Every unmarried man is looking for a wife. They just don't always know it.”
Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist
Source: Just Like Heaven
“Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants.”
Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged
Source: Atlas Shrugged
William Golding book Lord of the Flies
Source: Lord of the Flies (1954), Ch. 12: The Cry of the Hunters
Context: His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.
“Every time we liberate a woman, we liberate a man.”
Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist
Attributed in La Abogada newsletter, Vol. 3 (1967) by International Federation of Women Lawyers, p. 5
1960s
“There ain't a body, be it mouse or man, that ain't made better by a little soup.”
Kate DiCamillo book The Tale of Despereaux
Source: The Tale of Despereaux
“Cities have sexes: London is a man, Paris a woman, and New York a well-adjusted transsexual.”
Angela Carter (1940–1992) English novelist
Expletives Deleted: Selected Writings (1992).
“A man is a very small thing, and the night is very large and full of wonders.”
Lord Dunsany (1878–1957) Irish writer and dramatist
“In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.”
Francis Bacon book Essays
Of Revenge
Essays (1625)
Variant: Certainly, in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince's part to pardon.
“Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error”
Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman
John Steinbeck book Travels with Charley: In Search of America
Source: Travels with Charley: In Search of America
Cormac McCarthy (1933) American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter
Blood Meridian (1985)
Source: Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
Context: And the answer, said the judge. If God meant to interfere in the degeneracy of mankind would he not have done so by now? Wolves cull themselves, man. What other creature could? And is the race of man not more predacious yet? The way of the world is to bloom and to flower and die but in the affairs of men there is no waning and the noon of his expression signals the onset of night. His spirit is exhausted at the peak of its achievement. His meridian is at once his darkening and the evening of his day. He loves games? Let him play for stakes. This you see here, these ruins wondered at by tribes of savages, do you not think that this will be again? Aye. And again. With other people, with other sons.
“The man who wants you to trust him is the one you must fear the most.”
Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer
Source: The Final Empire
“I will hate the man you choose because he isn't me, and love him if he makes you smile.”
Robert Jordan book The Eye of the World
Source: The Eye of the World
“What is a highbrow? He is a man who has found something more interesting than women.”
Edgar Wallace (1875–1932) British crime writer, journalist and playwright
New York Times, 24 January 1932, sec.8, p. 6
“Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun.”
Clifford Geertz (1926–2006) American anthropologist
“War and drink are the two things man is never too poor to buy.”
William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer
“It is good that a man's enemies want him dead, for it proves he has lived a life of worth.”
Forrest Carter (1925–1979) Political speechwriter, politician, novelist, memoirist
Source: The Outlaw Josey Wales
Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
John Berger book Ways of Seeing
Source: Ways of Seeing (1972)
Context: According to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome, the social presence of a woman is different in kind from that of a man... A man's presence suggests what he is capable of doing to you or for you... By contrast, a woman's presence expresses her own attitude to herself, and defines what can and cannot be done to her. (p. 45-46)
“I find it rude to laugh at a man with a sword.”
Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer
Source: Mortal Coil
“When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.”
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
“Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed”
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet
Letter, written in collaboration with John Gay, to William Fortescue (23 September 1725).
A similar remark was made in a letter to John Gay (16 October 1727): "I have many years magnify'd in my own mind, and repeated to you a ninth Beatitude, added to the eight in the Scripture: Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed."
Variant: Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
Context: "Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed" was the ninth Beatitude which a man of wit (who, like a man of wit, was a long time in gaol) added to the eighth.
“Cabbage, n. A familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large and wise as a man's head.”
Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary
The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Václav Havel book Disturbing the Peace
Source: Disturbing the Peace (1986), Ch. 1 : Growing Up "Outside", p. 11
“friendship and love blind every man to their interests.”
Robert Greene book The 48 Laws of Power
Source: The 48 Laws of Power
John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States
Notes for an oration at Braintree (Spring 1772)
1770s
“A man's library is a sort of harem.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird
Pt. 1, ch. 11
Atticus Finch
Variant: Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It's knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.
Source: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Context: I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.
“I was my own woman.
The next step was to find the proper sort of man.”
Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar
Source: The Bell Jar
Daniel Keyes book Flowers for Algernon
Source: Flowers for Algernon (1966)
Context: No one really starts anything new, Mrs Nemur. Everyone builds on other men's failures. There is nothing really original in science. What each man contributes to the sum of knowledge is what counts.
“The hardest tumble a man can take is to fall over his own bluff.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist
“A man without a vote is a man without protection.”
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)
As quoted in TIME magazine (6 October 1952)
1950s
Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer
Variant: Before marriage, a girl has to make love to a man to hold him. After marriage, she has to hold him to make love to him.
“Tell a man he is brave, and you help him to become so.”
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher
“It is life, I think, to watch the water. A man can learn so many things.”
Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook
Source: The Notebook
“Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.”
Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead
Source: The Fountainhead
“It's a wicked world, and when a clever man turns his brain to crime it is the worst of all.”
Arthur Conan Doyle book The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Source: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
“the poisonous world flows into my mouth like water into that of a drowning man”
Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author
Source: Diaries of Franz Kafka
“Somehow the pantsless gay man is not bringing the romance, Scott.”
Bryan Lee O'Malley (1979) Artist
Source: Scott Pilgrim, Volume 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
Henry Van Dyke (1852–1933) American diplomat
Variant: Oh, London is a man's town, there's power in the air;
And Paris is a woman's town, with flowers in her hair;
And it's sweet to dream in Venice, and it's great to study Rome;
But when it comes to living there is no place like home.
Source: America for Me (1909), Lines 9-12.
