Quotes about man page 53
“A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man”
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Letter to Morris Raphael Cohen, professor emeritus of philosophy at the College of the City of New York, defending the appointment of Bertrand Russell to a teaching position (19 March 1940).
1940s
Variant: Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thoughts in clear form.
“The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America
George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian
"Interview With Jesus"
A Place for My Stuff (1981)
“A high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial.”
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher
Source: The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims
“To be good, and to do good, is the whole duty of man comprised in a few words.”
Abigail Adams (1744–1818) 2nd First Lady of the United States (1797–1801)
Letter to Elizabeth Shaw (1784), quoted in John Adams (2001) by David McCullough, p. 310
“… no woman can love a weak man hard enough to make him strong.”
Pearl Cleage (1948) American novelist
Source: Just Wanna Testify
Maya Banks (1964) Author
Source: In Bed with a Highlander
“There's nothing honerable in a man who hides behind a blue woman's hanky.”
John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower
Source: Erak's Ransom
William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer
Variant: the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat
Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) Italian philosopher, mathematician and astronomer
As quoted in Life and Teachings of Giordano Bruno : Philosopher, Martyr, Mystic 1548 - 1600 (1913) by Coulson Turnbull
“Every man lives by exchanging.”
Adam Smith (1723–1790) Scottish moral philosopher and political economist
“Death waits for no man - and if he does, he doesn't usually wait for very long.”
Markus Zusak book The Book Thief
Source: The Book Thief
“Every man with a bellyful of the classics is an enemy to the human race”
Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist
“I’ve never heard of a man being so eager to confess to the parent of a girl he’s just ruined”
Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer
Source: Secrets of a Summer Night
“(Man in bar) Can you imagine a world without men? (Sylvia) No crime, and lots of happy, fat women.”
Nicole Hollander (1939) Cartoonist
Source: Sylvia cartoon strip, pp. 212-213
“All God wants of man is a peaceful heart.”
Meister Eckhart (1260–1328) German theologian
As translated in The Enlightened Mind: An Anthology of Sacred Prose (1991) edited by Stephen Mitchell, p. 115
Variant: God wants nothing of you but the gift of a peaceful heart.
“A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
“Lord loves a workin' man; don't trust whitey”
Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer
Gena Showalter (1975) American writer
Source: The Darkest Seduction
“Religion is flawed, but only because man is flawed.”
Dan Brown book Angels & Demons
Source: Angels & Demons
“Misogynist — A man who hates women as much as women hate one another.”
H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
Curtis Sittenfeld (1975) Novelist, short story writer
Source: The Man of My Dreams
“Muscles aching to work, minds aching to create - this is man.”
John Steinbeck book The Grapes of Wrath
Source: The Grapes of Wrath
Neil Strauss book The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists
Source: The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists
“Man is a bird without wings and a bird is a man without sorrow.”
Louis De Bernières book Birds Without Wings
Source: Birds Without Wings
“… a book need never die and should not be killed; books were the immortal part of man.”
Robert A. Heinlein book Farnham's Freehold
Source: Farnham's Freehold
“A revolutionary woman can't have no reactionary man.”
Assata Shakur (1947) American activist who was a member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army
“Love is blind; but it makes you see the blind man; teetering on the roadside…”
Martin Amis book London Fields
Source: London Fields
Anne Brontë book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Ch. XXII : Traits of Friendship; Arthur to Helen
Context: I see that a man cannot give himself up to drinking without being miserable one half his days and mad the other; besides, I like to enjoy my life at all sides and ends, which cannot be done by one that suffers himself to be the slave of a single propensity.
“To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.”
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer
Readers Digest (1934)
“He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer
Quoted in "Anecdotes of the Revd. Percival Stockdale" (1809) in Johnsonian Miscellanies (1897), vol. II, p. 333, edited by George Birkbeck Hill; also quoted in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, in the Avenged Sevenfold song "Bat Country", and in Kingdom S02E04.
“But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.”
Rachel Carson (1907–1964) American marine biologist and conservationist
Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) American politician and brother of John F. Kennedy
Speech on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968)
Context: And let's dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.
“When God made man she was practicing.”
Rita Mae Brown (1944) Novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist
Source: Cat on the Scent
“One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.”
Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice
Source: Pride and Prejudice (1813)
George Lois (1931) American art director, designer and author
“Anger can keep you warm at night, and wounded pride can spur a man to wondrous things.”
Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind
Source: The Name of the Wind
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer
Texts and Pretexts (1932), p. 270
Context: It is man's intelligence that makes him so often behave more stupidly than the beasts. … Man is impelled to invent theories to account for what happens in the world. Unfortunately, he is not quite intelligent enough, in most cases, to find correct explanations. So that when he acts on his theories, he behaves very often like a lunatic. Thus, no animal is clever enough, when there is a drought, to imagine that the rain is being withheld by evil spirits, or as punishment for its transgressions. Therefore you never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion. No horse, for example would kill one of its foals to make the wind change direction. Dogs do not ritually urinate in the hope of persuading heaven to do the same and send down rain. Asses do not bray a liturgy to cloudless skies. Nor do cats attempt, by abstinence from cat's meat, to wheedle the feline spirits into benevolence. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, intelligent enough.
“No man is happy who does not think himself so.”
Marcus Aurelius book Meditations
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave
Source: Meditations
“I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer
Quoted in the "Apophthegms, Sentiments, Opinions and Occasional Reflections" of Sir John Hawkins (1787-1789) in Johnsonian Miscellanies (1897), vol. II, p. 6, edited by George Birkbeck Hill
Source: Johnsonian Miscellanies - Vol II