quotations about men
Man, who wert once a despot and a slave,
A dupe and a deceiver! a decay,
A traveler from the cradle to the grave
Through the dim night of this immortal day.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
Prometheus Unbound
Man is an imitative animal. This quality is the germ of all education in him. From his cradle to his grave he is learning to do what he sees others do.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Notes on Virginia
If a girl as smart as yourself really wants to dig into the matter and truly get to know the nature of men and therefore boys, let me save you a lot of time and effort that you would otherwise spend trying to evaluate their intellectual motivations, their emotional states, and the reasons behind their inexplicable behavior. The thing to do is to take the anthropological view, try to concentrate on just how it is that they develop into the people they are: that is to say, thinly veiled sperm distributors. It will open up a wealth of answers. An ocean of understanding. And all you have to do is look down.
GWEN MACSAI
Lipshtick
Testosterone is a great equalizer, it turns all men into morons.
RUPERT GILES
"The Pack", Buffy the Vampire Slayer
[Man] attaches himself to woman -- not to enjoy her, but to enjoy himself.
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
The Second Sex
If Man be the Index or Epitomy of the World, as Philosophers tell us, we have only to read our selves well to be learned in it.
WILLIAM PENN
Some Fruits of Solitude
Marriage and fatherhood heighten the disillusion that we all think we are born handy. We confidently believe that we can fix things around the house, as if it's part of the collective brain that was further enhanced by eighth-grade shop class.
BOB NEWHART
I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This
But that is how men are! Ungrateful and never satisfied. When you don't have them they hate you because you won't; and when you do have them they hate you again, for some other reason. Or for no reason at all, except that they are discontented children, and can't be satisfied whatever they get, let a woman do what she may.
D. H. LAWRENCE
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Men get to be a mixture of the charming mannerisms of the women they have known.
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
Notebooks
Man makes one journey all his living days,
Down through the realms of music and of art;
Down through the halls of fame and glorious praise;
Down through the tears and triumphs of the heart
To some sweet woman waiting some place there.
For her he builds his cities and makes war,
Seeks gold and glorious wealth to store.
EDWIN CURRAN
"The Eternal Quest"
The sexiest thing about men is how they are with kids... If they are great with kids they are real men ... selfless, powerful, comforting ... Too bad so many men suck!
PAMELA ANDERSON
Man and animals are in reality vehicles and conduits of food, tombs of animals, hostels of Death, coverings that consume, deriving life by the death of others.
LEONARDO DA VINCI
Thoughts on Art and Life
Man is still a predatory animal, and we're only kidding ourselves if we think we're the pinnacle of evolution and civilization.
JELLO BIAFRA
interview, Spin Magazine, February 1986
Men read maps better than women because only men can understand the concept of an inch equaling a hundred miles.
ROSEANNE BARR
attributed, Soaring Solo
Men are not taught how to be lovers, to be expressive, to share, to show affection, and to become companions. As do all human beings, men have the capacity to love, but this capacity is not developed.... Because men are taught how to be workers and to be bosses, their gender identities do not respect their feminine sides.
IAN M. HARRIS
Messages Men Hear: Constructing Masculinities
Men peak at age nineteen and go downhill.
GARRISON KEILLOR
Leaving Home
Living with boys has changed the way I see men. I used to love them in spite of themselves. I've come to love them because of themselves. Collectively, they can be assholes. But so can women, given the same chance. Anyone who thinks estrogen is the antidote for brutality has neither paid much attention to history nor taken an eighth grade girls' gym class. Men may have sins against female kind to atone for, but being born male is not one of them.
KYRAN PITTMAN
Planting Dandelions
Man, unlike anything organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments.
JOHN STEINBECK
The Grapes of Wrath
Sometimes a woman needs a man for company, no matter how useless he is.
LISA KLEYPAS
Sugar Daddy
God would never have made Man to that height and excellence of nature if he had deigned him only to worldly drudgery and employment here below.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms