man - quotes

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, 1742-1799

was a German scientist, satirist and Anglophile

The proof that man is the noblest of all creatures is that no other creature has ever denied it.

Henry James, 1843-1916

was a British (US -born) author

His idea was simply what a man's idea always is — to put every effort off on the woman.

( “The Ambassadors”, Book Sixth, Chapter 1, 1903 )

Henry Ward Beecher, 1813-1887

was an US abolitionist and clergyman

You never know till you try to reach them how accessible men are; but you must approach each man by the right door.

Charles (Robert) Darwin, 1809-1882

was an English biologist

We must, however, acknowledge as it seems to me, that a man with all his noble qualities...still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.

William Shakespeare, 1564-1616

was an English poet and playwright

That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man,
If with his tongue he cannot win a woman.

( “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, Act 3 scene 1, ca 1590 )

Marilyn Monroe, 1926-1962

was an US actress

I don't mind living in a man's world as long as i can be a woman in it.

(Dr) Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784

was an English author, critic, and lexicographer

No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.

( “Boswell's Life of Johnson” )

John (Ernst) Steinbeck, 1902-1968

was an US novelist

I know this--a man got to do what he got to do.

( “The Grapes of Wrath”, 1939 )

Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862

was an US Transcendentalist author

Man is the artificer of his own happiness.

( Journal, January 21, 1838 )

George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950

was an Irish dramatist and socialist

When a man wants to murder a tiger, it's called sport; when the tiger wants to murder him it's called ferocity.

Friedrich (Wilhelm) Nietzsche, 1844-1900

was a German philosopher

Is man merely a mistake of God's? Or God merely a mistake of man's?

( “Twilight of the idols, or, How to philosophize with a hammer”, “Maxims and Arrows”, 1888 )

Miguel de Cervantes (Saavedra), 1547-1616

was a Spanish adventurer, author, and poet

Everyone is as God has made him, and oftentimes a great deal worse.

Michel (Eyquem) de Montaigne, 1533-1592

was a French essayist

Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a flea, yet he makes gods by the dozens.

(Dr) Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784

was an English author, critic, and lexicographer

He who makes a beast of himself, gets rid of the pain of being a man.

Ambrose (Gwinnett) Bierce, 1842-1914

was an US author and satirist

MAN, n. An animal so lost in rapturous contemplation of what he thinks he is as to overlook what he indubitably ought to be. His chief occupation is extermination of other animals and his own species, which, however, multiplies with such insistent rapidity as to infest the whole habitable earth and Canada.

When the world was young and Man was new,
And everything was pleasant,
Distinctions Nature never drew
'Mongst kings and priest and peasant.
We're not that way at present,
Save here in this Republic, where
We have that old regime,
For all are kings, however bare
Their backs, howe'er extreme
Their hunger. And, indeed, each has a voice
To accept the tyrant of his party's choice.

A citizen who would not vote,
And, therefore, was detested,
Was one day with a tarry coat
(With feathers backed and breasted)
By patriots invested.
“It is your duty,” cried the crowd,
“Your ballot true to cast
For the man o' your choice.” He humbly bowed,
And explained his wicked past:
“That's what I very gladly would have done,
Dear patriots, but he has never run.”
               Apperton Duke

( “The Devil's Dictionary”, 1906 )