Quotes about man
page 91

George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax photo

“A Man who is Master of Patience, is Master of everything else.”

George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax (1633–1695) English politician

Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750), Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections

Paul de Lagarde photo

“Man’s greatest joy is to revere other men, or to put it less extravagantly, to recognize other men above himself, and to love and be loved by these men.”

Paul de Lagarde (1827–1891) German polymath, biblical scholar and orientalist

Es ist das höchste Glück des Menschen, anzubeten, oder, milder gesagt, andre Menschen über sich anzuerkennen, die er liebt und die ihn lieben.
Paul de Lagarde: Erinnerungen aus seinem Leben für die Freunde zusammengestellt (1894), S. 40
as cited in The Politics of Cultural Despair (1961), p. 29

Sören Kierkegaard photo
Archibald Hill photo

“All knowledge, not only that of the natural world, can be used for evil as well as good: and in all ages there continue to be people who think that its fruit should be forbidden. Does the future wlfare, therefore, of mankind depend of a refusal of science and a more intensive study of the Sermon on the Mount? There are others who hold the contray opinion, that more and more of science and its applications alone can bring prosperity and happiness to men. Both of these extremes views seem to me entirely wrong - though the second is the more perilous as more likely to be commonly accepted. The so-called conflict between science and religion is usually about words, too often the words of their unbalanced advocates: the reality lies somewhere in between. "Completeness and dignity", to use Tyndall's phrase, are brought to man by three main channels, first by the religiouos sentiment and its embodiment of ethical principles, secondly by the influence of what is beautiful in nature, human personality, or art, and thirdly, by the pursuit of scientific truth and its resolute use in improving human life. Some suppose that religion and beauty are incompatible: others, that the aesthetic has no relation to the scientific sense: both seem to me just as mistaken as those who hold that the scientific and the religious spirit are necessarily opposed. Co-operation is required, not conflict: for science can be used to express and apply the principles of ethics, and those principles themselves can guide the behaviour of scientific men: while the appreciation of what is good and beautiful can provide to both a vision of encouragement. Is there really then any special ethical dilemma which we scientific men, as distinct from other people, have to meet? I think not: unless it be to convince ourselves humbly that we are just like others in having moral issues to face. It is true that integrity of thought is the absolute condition of oour work, and that judgments of value must never be allowed to deflect our judgements of fact. But in this we are not unique. It is true that scientific research has opened up the possibility of unprecedented good, or unlimited harm, for manking: but the use is made of it depends in the end on the moral judgments of the whole community of men. It is totally impossible noew to reverse the process of discovery: it will certainly go on. To help to guide its use aright is not a scientific dilemma, but the honourable and compelling duty of a good citizen.”

Archibald Hill (1886–1977) English physiologist and biophysicist

The Ethical Dilemma Of Science, Hill, 1960. The Ethical Dilemma of Science and Other Writings https://books.google.com.mx/books?id=zaE1AAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false. Rockefeller Univ. Press, pp. 88-89

Muammar Gaddafi photo

“Lincoln was a man who created himself from nothing without any help from outside or other people. I followed his struggles. I see certain similarities between him and me.”

Muammar Gaddafi (1942–2011) Libyan revolutionary, politician and political theorist

The Pittsburgh Press (3 August 1986) "Gadhafi, the man the world loves to hate" by Marie Colvin (UPI)

Werner von Blomberg photo

“Keitel is nobody but the man who runs my office.”

Werner von Blomberg (1878–1946) German field marshal

To Adolf Hitler. Quoted in "Underground Humour in Nazi Germany" - Page 69 - by Fritz Karl Michael Hillenbrand - 1995

Arthur Koestler photo
Edward Coke photo

“The Common lawes of the Realme should by no means be delayed for the law is the surest sanctuary, that a man should take, and the strongest fortresse to protect the weakest of all, lex et tutissima cassis.”

Edward Coke (1552–1634) English lawyer and judge

Institutes of the Laws of England, Second Part, vol. 1 (1642), Notes to Ch. XXIX of the Charter [Magna Carta], paragraph 1391 http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php&title=912&search=%22tutissima%22&chapter=61105&layout=html#a_1375898
Institutes of the Laws of England

Edgar Rice Burroughs photo
Carl Everett photo
Honoré de Balzac photo

“A man ought not to marry without having studied anatomy, and dissected at least one woman.”

Un homme ne peut se marier sans avoir étudié l'anatomie et disséqué une femme au moins.
Part I, Meditation V: Of the Predestined, aphorism XXVIII.
Physiology of Marriage (1829)

Isa Genzken photo
H. G. Wells photo
George Bird Evans photo
Alain Finkielkraut photo
G. K. Chesterton photo

“Lord! what a strange world in which a man cannot remain unique even by taking the trouble to go mad!”

The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904)
The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904)

“Each man follows the path of destiny, but no two paths are alike. It seems that mine now runs into a place of evil intent, wasted wisdom, and stupidity.”

Andre Norton (1912–2005) American writer of science fiction and fantasy

Source: Dragon Magic (1972), Chapter 5, “Shui Mien Lung—Slumbering Dragon” (p. 168)

David Lloyd George photo

“Never have I had such great minds around me—Smuts, Balfour, Bonar Law…and Curzon. Curzon was perhaps not a great man, but he was a supreme Civil Servant. Compared to these men, the front benches of today are pigmies.”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Quoted in Harold Nicolson's diary entry (6 July 1936), quoted in Nigel Nicolson (ed.), Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters. 1930-1939 (London: Collins, 1966), p. 268.
Later life

Patrick Rothfuss photo

“So you went looking for a myth and found a man.”

Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 6, “The Price of Remembering” (p. 50)

Adlai Stevenson photo

“You can tell the size of a man by the size of the thing that makes him mad.”

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) mid-20th-century Governor of Illinois and Ambassador to the UN

Address to the State Committee of the Liberal Party in New York City, Faith in Liberalism ( pdf http://www.adlaitoday.org/ideas/archive/care1_liberalism_08-28-52.pdf) (28 August 1952)

River Phoenix photo

“I'm a ROLLS-ROYCE! A MAN-EATING ROLLS-ROYCE!”

Taubie Kushlick (1910–1991) South African actor and director

Sunday Times interview (1980s)

Cormac McCarthy photo
John Lancaster Spalding photo

“In the world of thought a man’s rank is determined, not by his average work, but by his highest achievement.”

John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) Catholic bishop

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 13

H.L. Mencken photo
Robert G. Ingersoll photo
Alphonse de Lamartine photo
Leo Tolstoy photo
Mohammad Hidayatullah photo
Warren E. Burger photo
Pope Benedict XVI photo
Giovanni della Casa photo
George Holmes Howison photo
Thomas Bradwardine photo
Ahad Ha'am photo
David Dixon Porter photo
Daniel Webster photo

“If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity.”

Daniel Webster (1782–1852) Leading American senator and statesman. January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852. Served as the Secretary of Sta…

First reported in the Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bible Society (1870), p. 27. This is actually a misquote combining phrases from different lines in an address delivered by Webster to the New York Historical Society on February 23, 1852.
Misattributed

George Bernard Shaw photo

“The test of a man or woman's breeding is how they behave in a quarrel.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Act IV
1890s, The Philanderer (1893)

Henrik Ibsen photo

“When he died, he held fourteen baseball records, a little man with a bashful smile, a silken swing, baseball's legendary nice guy. His death was the worst that could have happened to baseball, but his playing career had been the best.”

Arnold Hano (1922) American writer

On Mel Ott, from "Nice Guy," in Greatest Giants of Them All (1967), p. 232; reprinted in Mel Ott: The Little Giant of Baseball https://books.google.com/books?id=5JlCbMNiWr0C&pg=PA192&dq=%22Arnold+Hano+wrote+feelingly%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CBQQ6AEwAGoVChMI4Yfx7arUxwIViHA-Ch3J4wOi#v=onepage&q=%22Arnold%20Hano%20wrote%20feelingly%22&f=false (1999) by Fred Stein, p. 192
Sports-related

Warren Farrell photo
Maxwell D. Taylor photo
Martin Buber photo
David Letterman photo

“David Letterman: Earlier today, the man who owns this network, Leslie Moonves—he and I have had a relationship for years and years and years—and we have had this conversation in the past, and we agreed that we would work together on this circumstance and the timing of this circumstance. And I phoned him just before the program, and I said, "Leslie, it's been great, you've been great, the network has been great, but I'm retiring."
Paul Shaffer: This is—really?
David Letterman: Yep.
Paul Shaffer: This is—this is—you actually did this?
David Letterman: Yes, I did.
[dead silence in the studio followed by nervous laughter from the audience]
Paul Shaffer: Well—do I have a minute to call my accountant, because…I, uh…
[Dave cracks up]
David Letterman: I just want to reiterate my thanks for the support from the network, all of the people who have worked here, all of the people in the theatre, all the people on the staff, everybody at home. Thank you very much. And what this means now, is that Paul and I can be married.
[uproarious laughter and applause as wedding chimes play]
David Letterman: So we don't have the timing of this precisely down, I think it will be at least a year or so. But sometime in the not too distant future—2015 for the love of God, in fact, Paul and I will be wrapping things up and taking a hike.
[studio audience goes wild, gives him a standing ovation]
David Letterman: Thank you, thanks everybody. All right, thanks very much.”

David Letterman (1947) American comedian and actor

On announcing his retirement, quoted in Here’s what happened the moment David Letterman announced his retirement (transcript + video) http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/04/03/heres-what-happened-the-moment-david-letterman-announced-his-retirement-transcript-video/ by Emily Yahr, in "The Washington Post" (3 April 2014).

Arthur Hertzberg photo
Henry Ward Beecher photo

“When laws, customs, or institutions cease to be beneficial to man, they cease to be obligatory.”

Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887) American clergyman and activist

Source: Life Thoughts (1858), p. 34

Madonna photo

“Maybe I'm just a gay man inside a woman's body!”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

(Talking to Michael Parkinson in November '05 interview).

George Bernard Shaw photo
Fiona Apple photo
Ilana Mercer photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo

“Whenever racial discrimination exists it is a tragic expression of man’s spiritual degeneracy and moral bankruptcy. Therefore, it must be removed not merely because it is diplomatically expedient, but because it is morally compelling.”

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

1960s, The Rising Tide of Racial Consciousnes (1960)

Pope Benedict XVI photo

“The primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is man, the human person in his or her integrity”

Pope Benedict XVI (1927) 265th Pope of the Catholic Church

2009, Cartias in Vertitate (29 June 2009)

Richard Rodríguez photo
Orson Scott Card photo

“This is Alvin Smith,” said Cooper. “He’s a man of inestimable abilities, but only because nobody has cared enough to estimate them.”

Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Heartfire (1998), Chapter 5.

Sathya Sai Baba photo
Hermann Hesse photo
Bert Williams photo

“The man with the real sense of humor is the man who can put himself in the spectator's place and laugh at his own misfortunes.”

Bert Williams (1874–1922) American comedian and actor

Bert Williams, The comic side of trouble, January 1918, American Magazine 85, 33-34, 58-60. Quoted in From traveling show to vaudeville: theatrical spectacle in America, 1830-1910, 2003, Robert M. Lewis, JHU Press, ISBN 0801870879.

James A. Garfield photo

“Poverty is uncomfortable, as I can testify; but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim for himself.”

James A. Garfield (1831–1881) American politician, 20th President of the United States (in office in 1881)

"Elements of Success", as published in President Garfield and education. Hiram college memorial (1882), compiled by B. A. Hinsdale, p. 331

Thomas Carlyle photo

“Wise command, wise obedience: the capability of these two is the net measure of culture, and human virtue, in every man; all good lies in the possession of these two capabilities; all evil, wretchedness and ill-success in the want of these.”

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

1850s, Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850), The New Downing Street (April 15, 1850)

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“Man exists for his own sake and not to add a laborer to the state.”

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

Journal, 328, Nov. 15, 1839, http://www.perfectidius.com/Volume_5_1838-1841.pdf
1820s, Journals (1822–1863)

Alexander von Humboldt photo
Gustavo Gutiérrez photo
Walter Dill Scott photo

“Man has been called the reasoning animal but he could with greater truthfulness be called the creature of suggestion. He is reasonable, but he is to a greater extent suggestible.”

Walter Dill Scott (1869–1955) President of Northwestern university and psychologist

Source: The Theory of Advertising, 1903, p. 59

Charlton Heston photo
Shmuel Yosef Agnon photo
Clifford D. Simak photo
Clarence Darrow photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
Pietro Aretino photo
Max Beckmann photo

“Life is each human being's workshop. If a man survives a lifetime with his creative capacities intact, he has done his part to make a better world for all men.”

Paul Rosenfels (1909–1985) American sociologist

12. Prescription for Survival
Love and Power: The Psychology of Interpersonal Creativity (1966)

Harry Harrison photo
Jeremy Hardy photo

“On Vince Cable: But he's charming and northern; he's the man tasked with crushing the poor in their own accent, isn't he really?”

Jeremy Hardy (1961–2019) British comedian

The News Quiz series 72 episode 1, BBC Radio 4, 24 September 2010

Jiddu Krishnamurti photo
Donald Barthelme photo

“What a man knows should find its expression in what he does. The value of superior knowledge is chiefly in that it leads to a performing manhood.”

Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American writer

Source: Intuitions and Summaries of Thought (1862), Volume II, p. 24.

Democritus photo

“The laws would not prevent each man from living according to his inclination, unless individuals harmed each other; for envy creates the beginning of strife.”

Democritus Ancient Greek philosopher, pupil of Leucippus, founder of the atomic theory

Freeman (1948), p. 166
Variant: Envy is the cause of political division.

George Dantzig photo

“One of the first applications of the simplex algorithm was to the determination of an adequate diet that was of least cost. In the fall of 1947, Jack Laderman of the Mathematical Tables Project of the National Bureau of Standards undertook, as a test of the newly proposed simplex method, the first large-scale computation in this field. It was a system with nine equations in seventy-seven unknowns. Using hand-operated desk calculators, approximately 120 man-days were required to obtain a solution. … The particular problem solved was one which had been studied earlier by George Stigler (who later became a Nobel Laureate) who proposed a solution based on the substitution of certain foods by others which gave more nutrition per dollar. He then examined a "handful" of the possible 510 ways to combine the selected foods. He did not claim the solution to be the cheapest but gave his reasons for believing that the cost per annum could not be reduced by more than a few dollars. Indeed, it turned out that Stigler's solution (expressed in 1945 dollars) was only 24 cents higher than the true minimum per year $39.69.”

George Dantzig (1914–2005) American mathematician

cited in: John J. O'Connor & Edmund F.; Robertson (2003) " George Dantzig http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Dantzig_George.html". in: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews.
Linear programming and extensions (1963)

Carlos Santana photo
Roger Ebert photo
Gene Wolfe photo
Henry Hazlitt photo
William Shenstone photo

“A fool and his words are soon parted; a man of genius and his money.”

William Shenstone (1714–1763) English gardener

On Reserve

David D. Levine photo

“How absurd, she thought, that the sight of a man’s naked breast should be more objectionable than to see him possibly blown to bits.”

David D. Levine (1961) science fiction writer

Source: Arabella and the Battle of Venus (2017), Chapter 9, “Fleur de Lys” (p. 129)

Ann Coulter photo

“You would think there were "Straights Only" water fountains the way Democrats carry on so (as if any gay man would drink nonbottled water)”

Ann Coulter (1961) author, political commentator

As if any gay man would drink nonbottled water Massachusetts Supreme Court abolishes capitalism! 2003-12-04 Townhall http://townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/2003/12/04/massachusetts_supreme_court_abolishes_capitalism!/page/full/
2003

Hunter S. Thompson photo

“A man has to BE something; he has to matter.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

Letter to Hume Logan (22 April 1958), p. 118
1990s, The Proud Highway : The Fear and Loathing Letters Volume I (1997)

Simon Kuznets photo
George Herbert Mead photo

“Man lives in a world of Meaning. What he sees and hears means what he will or might handle.”

George Herbert Mead (1863–1931) American philosopher, sociologist, and psychologist

George Herbert Mead (1926). "The Nature of Aesthetic Experience." International Journal of Ethics, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Jul., 1926), pp. 382-393; p. 382

William G. Boykin photo

“Well, is he [bin Laden] the enemy? Next slide. Or is this man [Saddam] the enemy? The enemy is none of these people I have showed you here. The enemy is a spiritual enemy. He’s called the principality of darkness. The enemy is a guy called Satan.”

William G. Boykin (1948) Recipient of the Purple Heart medal

Speech at a First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Florida General who voiced his faith cleared on major accusations http://www.bpnews.net/18948, June 2003.

Khushwant Singh photo
Brian Viglione photo
Arun Jaitley photo

“When the international prices rise, we expect the government to cut its share of profit and its revenue earnings and share the burden of the increase with the common man.”

Arun Jaitley (1952–2019) Indian politician

Responding to fuel price raise by the UPA government, as quoted in " India announces fuel price rise http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4219582.stm", BBC News (6 September 2005)

Diogenes Laërtius photo

“When a man reproached him for going into unclean places, he said, "The sun too penetrates into privies, but is not polluted by them."”

Diogenes Laërtius (180–240) biographer of ancient Greek philosophers

Diogenes, 6.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 6: The Cynics