Quotes about man
page 56

“I get off on a man with strong moral fiber. The closest Barrons ever gets to fiber is walking down the cereal aisle at the grocery store.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Bloodfever

Strong

“Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies.”

Jane Austen (1775–1817) English novelist

“The mind of man is a thousand times more beautiful than the earth on which he dwells.”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

Beauty, Time

“The condition of man… is a condition of war of everyone against everyone”

Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) English philosopher, born 1588

War

“we can harness the energy of the winds, the seas, the sun. But the day man learns to harness the energy of love, that will be as important as the discovery of fire.”

Paulo Coelho book The Zahir

Source: The Zahir

Love, Learning, Sun, Sea

“He walked out of nowhere toward nowhere, a man from another time who, it seemed, had reached a point of pointless ending.”

Stephen King book The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three

Source: The Drawing of the Three

Time

“A viler evil than to murder a man, is to sell him suicide as an act of virtue.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Suicide, Evil

“The armour of falsehood is subtly wrought out of darkness, and hides a man not only from others, but from his own soul.”

E.M. Forster book A Room with a View

Source: A Room with a View

Soul

“Look, Mother, I am never going to be thin.
I'm Norwegian. If you wanted a thin daughter, you should not have married a man whose female ancestors carried cows home from the pasture”

Jennifer Crusie book Bet Me

Source: Bet Me

Home, Daughters

“The civilized man is a more experienced and wiser savage.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Source: Walden

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) American economist and diplomat

“Stop the Madness,” Interview with Rupert Cornwell, Toronto Globe and Mail (6 July 2002) (see http://wist.info/galbraith-john-kenneth/7463/ )

Exercises, Search, Selfishness, For Men

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Variant: I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

Life

“When a man takes up arms, he does so for many reasons. Sometimes to punish, sometimes to intimidate or frighten. But when a woman picks up a weapon, she means to kill.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Clean Sweep

“I, the man of color, want only this: That the tool never possess the man. That the enslavement of man by man cease forever. That is, of one by another. That it be possible for me to discover and to love man, wherever he may be.”

Frantz Fanon book Black Skin, White Masks

Source: Black Skin, White Masks

Love, Color

“It is easier to denature plutonium than it is to denature the evil spirit of man.”

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

1940s Source: The Real Problem Is in the Hearts of Men http://books.google.com/books?id=AIHgK-p6mhgC&q=%22It+is+easier+to+denature+plutonium+than+it+is+to+denature+the+evil+spirit+of+man%22&pg=PA385#v=onepage, The New York Times Magazine ( June 23, 1946 http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60715F63E5C14738DDDAA0A94DE405B8688F1D3)

Evil

“Is God a man or a woman?
God could be an armadillo. I have no idea.”

Sherman Alexie book Reservation Blues

Source: Reservation Blues

God, Idea

“The Negro enslaved by his inferiority, the white man enslaved by his superiority alike behave in accordance with a neurotic orientation.”

Frantz Fanon book Black Skin, White Masks

Source: Black Skin, White Masks (1952), Ch.2, p. 60

“As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.”

James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)

“Whenever a woman requires too many things from a man, he’ll resent it. Let him give what he wants to give freely; then observe who he is.”

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

“There is something in the human spirit that will survive and prevail, there is a tiny and brilliant light burning in the heart of man that will not go out no matter how dark the world becomes.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

World, Light, Heart

“No matter how happily a woman may be married, it always pleases her to discover that there is a nice man who wishes that she were not.”

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

"Masculum et Feminam Creavit Eos," http://books.google.com/books?id=4cl5c4T9LWkC&q=%22No+matter+how+happily+a+woman+may+be+married+it+always+pleases+her+to+discover+that+there+is+a+nice+man+who+wishes+that+she+were+not%22&pg=PA337#v=onepage Ch. 30: Sententiæ http://books.google.com/books?id=VK0vR4fsaigC&q=%22No+matter+how+happily+a+woman+may+be+married+it+always+pleases+her+to+discover+that+there+is+a+nice+man+who+wishes+that+she+were+not%22&pg=PT1176#v=onepage 1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)

“When things go wrong and will not come right,
Though you do the best you can,
When life looks black as the hour of night,
A PINT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.”

Flann O'Brien book At Swim-Two-Birds

Source: At Swim-Two-Birds

Life, Night

“Girls are so queer you never know what they mean. They say no when they mean yes, and drive a man out of his wits just for the fun of it.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Laurie to Jo, in Ch. 35 : Heartache
Source: Little Women (1868)

Girl

“You and I were different. We came from different worlds, and yet you were the one how taught me the value of love. You showed me what it was like to care for another, and I am a better man because of it. I don't want you to ever forget that.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

Love, World, Forgetting

“It didn't take long to realize I didn't hardly know nothing. And that if you ast yourself why you black or a man or a woman or a bush it don't mean nothing if you don't ast why you here, period”

Alice Walker book The Color Purple

Source: The Color Purple

“A man on a thousand mile walk has to forget his goal and say to himself every morning, 'Today I'm going to cover twenty-five miles and then rest up and sleep.”

Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace

Source: War and Peace

Sleep, Forgetting

“A man thinks he owns things, and it is he who is owned”

André Gide book The Immoralist

Source: The Immoralist

Thinking

“Men are easy,' he said, fingers tapping on his mahogany desk. 'A man's plumbing is like his mind: simple, very few surprises. You ladies, on the other hand… well, God put a lot of thought into making you.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner

Men, God

“He was my father. I own half his genes, and all of his history. Believe this: the mistakes are part of the story. I am born of a man who believed he could tell nothing but the truth, while he set down for all time the Poisonwood Bible.”

Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible

Source: The Poisonwood Bible

Truth, History, Time, Parting

“A man that is young in years may be old in hours if he have lost no time.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

Time

“…. A goodlookin horse is like a goodlookin woman, he said. They’re always more trouble than what they’re worth. What a man needs is just one that will get the job done.”

Cormac McCarthy book All the Pretty Horses

Source: All the Pretty Horses (1992)

Horse

“My feelings for Raphael are mine, and mine alone. I loved him, and that is all anyone needs to know. The rest is no business of any man's.”

John Connolly The Book of Lost Things

Source: The Book of Lost Things

Love, Feeling, Business

“Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. It encourages a man to be expansive, even reckless, while lie detectors are only a challenge to tell lies successfully.”

Graham Greene book Travels with My Aunt

Travels with My Aunt (1969)

Truth, Lie

“If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.”

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

Books, Reading

“When you are wrestling for possession of a sword, the man with the handle always wins.”

Neal Stephenson book Snow Crash

Source: Snow Crash

“I swear I've never met a man who has your knack for lack of social grace. If you weren't naturally charming, someone would have stabbed you by now.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Nature

“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Source: Walden

Life, Books, Reading

“The man who seeks revenge digs two graves.”

Ken Kesey (1935–2001) novelist

Revenge

“She would follow, her dream of love, the dictates of her heart that told her he was her all in all, the only man in all the world for her for love was the master guide. Come what might she would be wild, untrammelled, free.”

James Joyce Ulysses

Source: Ulysses

Love, World, Dreams, Heart

“But when the other end of the line picked up, it was his voicemail that answered, not the man himself. "I know how devastated you must be to miss me," his cheery voice said, "but leave a message, and I'll try to ease your agony as soon as possible.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

“A man attaches himself to woman -- not to enjoy her, but to enjoy himself.”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

“In the time of gods and monsters, what is the worth of a man?”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

God, Time

“I thought we had lost you. I thought we'd done something worse than let you die.' His old arms were tight and strong about me.

I was kind to the old man. I did not tell him they had.”

Robin Hobb book Assassin's Quest

Source: Assassin's Quest

Strong

“The greatest tales, well told, awaken the fears and longings of the listeners. Each man hears a different story. Each is touched by it according to his inner self. The words go to the ear, but the true message travels straight to the spirit.”

Juliet Marillier book Son of the Shadows

Source: Son of the Shadows

Fear, Travel

“Even a feeble-minded man wants to be like other men.”

Daniel Keyes book Flowers for Algernon

Source: Flowers for Algernon (1966)

Men

“Do ye want me?" he whispered. "Sassenach, will ye take me - and risk the man that I am, for the sake of the man ye knew?”

Diana Gabaldon book Voyager

Source: Voyager

“No, I'm a man with a rule. People leave me alone, I leave them alone. If they don't, I don't.”

Lee Child book Nothing to Lose

Source: Nothing to Lose

People

“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.”

Francis Bacon book The Advancement of Learning

Book I, v, 8
The Advancement of Learning (1605)
Source: The Advancement Of Learning
Context: The two ways of contemplation are not unlike the two ways of action commonly spoken of by the ancients: the one plain and smooth in the beginning, and in the end impassable; the other rough and troublesome in the entrance, but after a while fair and even. So it is in contemplation: If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.

“Her lips were red, her looks were free,
Her locks were yellow as gold:
Her skin was white as leprosy,
The Nightmare Life-in-Death was she,
Who thicks man's blood with cold.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge book The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Source: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Life, Death

“My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

Life, Happiness

“You really want to know what being an X-Man feels like? Just be a smart bookish boy of color in a contemporary U. S. ghetto. Mamma mia! Like having bat wings or a pair of tentacles growing out of your chest.”

Junot Díaz book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Source: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Color, Feeling, Boy

“Death and love are the two wings that bear the good man to heaven.”

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet

Love, Death

“Any man can fart in a closed room and say that he commands the wind”

Scott Lynch book Red Seas Under Red Skies

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies

“A woman, no matter the age, is always learning, always becoming. But a man… stops learning at fourteen or so.”

Edward P. Jones The Known World

Source: The Known World

Age, Learning

“Ah, why should all mankind
For one man's fault, be condemned,
If guiltless?”

John Milton book Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

“He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder.”

Tad Williams Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn

Author’s Warning
Source: Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, The Dragonbone Chair (1988)

Heart

“With the inevitability of a tongue returning to probe a painful tooth, we come back and back and back again to our fears, sitting to talk them over with the eagerness of a hungry man before a full and steaming plate.”

Clive Barker (1952) author, film director and visual artist

Source: Books of Blood: Volume Two

Pain, Fear

“I only suggest to you: Will you dwell on killing this man? You wish for revenge? If you do, he has already killed you by slow poison. So, let it go. Why waste your time? His life will see to his death.”

Lloyd Alexander (1924–2007) American children's writer

Source: The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio

Life, Death, Revenge, Time

“Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am -- not stuck in the middle, but hovering above the entire farcical spectrum, weeping as I behold my fellow man's devotion to political illusion and self-destruction.”

Robert Higgs (1944) economist

“Who lives longer? the man who takes heroin for two years and dies, or a man who lives on roast beef, water and potatoes 'till 95? One passes his 24 months in eternity. All the years of the beefeater are lived only in time.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

The Shortcut: 20 Stories To Get You From Here To There (2006) by Kevin A Fabiano, p. 179

Water, Time

“If in 100 years I am only known as the man who invented Sherlock Holmes then I will have considered my life a failure.”

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish physician and author

Life, Failure

“This is not a war, this is a test of how far man can be degraded”

Sebastian Faulks book Birdsong

Source: Birdsong

War

“Every man and every woman is a star.”

Aleister Crowley book The Book of the Law

I:3.
Source: The Book of the Law (1904)

Star

“I looked into his eyes, and I realized he was the same man I'd seen in my dreams. His face might be totally different, but the same soul was in there, the same intelligence and all the sadness.”

Rick Riordan book The Battle of the Labyrinth

Source: The Battle of the Labyrinth

Sadness, Dreams, Soul, Intelligence

“Ruin, eldest daughter of Zeus, she blinds us all, that fatal madness—she with those delicate feet of hers, never touching the earth, gliding over the heads of men to trap us all. She entangles one man, now another.”

Homér Iliad

Source: The Iliad

Men, Daughters, Madness

“I can normally tell how intelligent a man is by how stupid he thinks I am.”

Cormac McCarthy book All the Pretty Horses

Source: All the Pretty Horses

Stupidity, Intelligence, Thinking

“That a man can change himself…and master his own destiny is the conclusion of every mind who is wide-awake to the power of right thought.”(Christian D. Larson)”

Rhonda Byrne book The Secret

Source: The Secret

Change

“Thus, the ultimate choice for a man, inasmuch as he is driven to transcend himself, is to create or to destroy, to love or to hate.”

Erich Fromm (1900–1980) German social psychologist and psychoanalyst

Love, Hate

“… maybe it was better to break a man's leg than to break his heart.”

Laura Hillenbrand book Seabiscuit: An American Legend

Source: Seabiscuit: An American Legend

Heart

“I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Variant: We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

“If anything happens, Marcus will save you. Won't you, Marcus? Hale asked, looking up at the man, who nodded.

It would be an honor, Miss.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Uncommon Criminals

“Italians have a little joke, that the world is so hard a man must have two fathers to look after him, and that's why they have godfathers.”

Mario Puzo The Godfather

Source: The Godfather

World

“How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.”

Adam Smith book The Theory of Moral Sentiments

Section I, Chap. I.
The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), Part I

Happiness, Pleasure, Nature, Selfishness

“No man or woman born, coward or brave, can shun his destiny.”

Homér Iliad

Source: The Iliad

“Somehow I think Trophy Wives wear more makeup and less cutlery. But hey, I haven't ever met a Trophy Wife, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they know what I know, that the true way to a man's heart is six inches of metal between his ribs.”

Laurell K. Hamilton (1963) Novelist

Anita's musings on knives; unidentified edition, pp. 304-305
Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series, Narcissus In Chains (2001)
Context: I stepped out of the car on the rat king's arm, like a trophy wife--except for the wrist sheaths and the two folding knives hidden in my clothing. Somehow I think trophy wives wear more makeup and less cutlery. But, Hey, I haven't met a trophy wife, maybe I'm wrong. 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. Funny how phallic objects are always more useful the bigger they are. Anyone who tells you size doesn't matter has been seeing too many small knives.

Way, Thinking, Heart

“Education is the manifestation of perfection present already in man. Religion is the manifestation of the divinity already in man.”

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

Pearls of Wisdom

Education, Religion, Perfection

“Every man or woman who makes a stand helps keep the flame of freedom burning.”

Juliet Marillier book Shadowfell

Source: Shadowfell

Freedom, Help

“Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.”

Anatole France book The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

L'homme est ainsi fait qu'il ne se délasse d'un travail que par un autre.
Pt. II, ch. 4
Source: The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881)

“No man is a devil in his own mind.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

“Women have been repeating the same mistake since time began: falling for a man’s potential. We rarely see it the same way, and even more rarely care to achieve it.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: The Alpha Alternative: JZB Sex Scene

Women, Way, Time

“Beware the man of a single book.”
Hominem unius libri timeo. / Timeo hominem unius libri.

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church

As quoted by Leonard Sweet, The Greatest Story Never Told http://books.google.gr/books?id=KuTRcjWL91AC&dq=, section: "The Gift of Lyrics", Abingdon Press, 2012 Variant: "Beware the man of one book." See also: Homo unius libri Disputed Variant: I fear the man of a single book.

Books

“The full moon rises. The fog clings to the lowest branches of the spruce trees. The man steps out of the darkest corner of the forest and finds himself transformed into…

A monkey?

I think not.”

Garth Stein The Art of Racing in the Rain

Source: The Art of Racing in the Rain

Thinking, Tree

“The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

July 14, 1852
Journals (1838-1859)

Youth, Age

“That seemed to handle it. That was it. Send a girl off with one man. Introduce her to another to go off with him. Now go and bring her back. And sign the wire with love. That was it all right. I went in to lunch.”

Ernest Hemingway book The Sun Also Rises

Source: The Sun Also Rises

Love, Girl

“A rich man's faults are covered with money, but a surgeon's faults are covered with earth.”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

Money

“A common man marvels at uncommon things. A wise man marvels at the commonplace.”

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

“No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength.”

Jack Kerouac book Lonesome Traveler

Lonesome Traveler (1960)
Context: No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength. Learning for instance, to eat when he's hungry and sleep when he's sleepy.

Life, Solitude, Learning, Dependency

“Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

God

“A man's bookcase will tell you everything you'll ever need to know about him.”

Walter Mosley (1952) American writer

Source: The Long Fall

“dealing with any man means dealing with multiple personalities.”

Rick Riordan book The Serpent's Shadow

Source: The Serpent's Shadow

Personality

“Like any man, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land.”

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

1960s, I've Been to the Mountaintop (1968)
Context: Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like any man, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

Life, God, People, Mountain