As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly. Samuel Johnson
Man, my lord, is a being born to believe. Benjamin Disraeli, speech Oxford 25th November 1864
Is man an ape or an angel? Now I am on the side of the angels. ibid.
Increased means and increased leisure are the two civilizers of man. Benjamin Disraeli, speech Manchester 3rd April 1872
The whole sphere of the conditions of life which environ man, and which have hitherto ruled man, now conies under the dominion and control of man, who for the first time becomes the real conscious Lord of Nature, because he has now become master of his own social organisation. Frederick Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist ... Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The four stages of man are infancy, childhood, adolescence, and obsolescence. Art Linkletter, A Child’s Garden of Misinformation, 1965
The natural man has only two primal passions, to get and beget. William Osler, Science and Immortality, 1904
The desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals. William Osler
A man has to be what he is. Shane 1953 starring Alan Ladd & Jean Arthur & Van Heflin & Brandon deWilde & Jack Palance & Ben Johnson & Edgar Buchanan & Emile Meyer & Elisha Cook & Douglas Spencer & John Dierkes & Ellen Corby et al, director George Stevens, Shane to Joey
Man is the measure of all things. Protagoras, 480-411 BCE
Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
I am commencing an undertaking, hitherto without precedent, and which will never find an imitator. I desire to set before my fellows the likeness of a man in all the truth of nature, and that man myself.
Myself alone! I know the feeling of my heart, and I know men. I am not made like any of those I have seen; I venture to believe that I am not made like any of those in existence. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions, 1782
What is man, when you come to think upon him, but a minutely set, ingenious machine for turning, with infinite artfulness, the red wine of Shiraz into urine? Isak Dinesen, 1885-1962, Danish novelist, Seven Gothic Tales, 1934
I believe that man will not merely endure, he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. William Faulkner, Nobel prize acceptance speech 1950
A man shouldn’t fool with booze until he’s fifty; then he’s a damn fool if he doesn’t. William Faulkner
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Learning together
Headpiece filled with straw! Alas! T S Eliot, The Hollow Men
On the Dignity and Excellence of Man. Giannozzo Manetti
That man can interrogate as well as observe nature was a lesson slowly learned in his evolution. William Osler, Aphorisms from his Bedside Teaching, 1961
Man becomes what he is meant to be. At least he ought to get there. But most get stuck by unfavourable external conditions, by all sorts of hindrances or pathological destructions. Carl Jung
The only real danger that exists is man himself. He is the great danger ... We are the origin of all coming evil. Carl Jung
The common man marvels at uncommon things. The wise man marvels at the commonplace. Confucius
Men are convicted of the capital crime of poverty. We must not allow mankind to be sacrificed to improvements in mechanisms. Lord Byron, defence of Luddites
Man’s love is of man’s life a thing apart,
’Tis woman’s whole existence. Lord Byron, Don Juan
The three most important things a man has are, briefly, his private parts, his money, and his religious opinions. Samuel Butler, English novelist, 1835-1902
Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous and magnificent, yet so vicious and base? He appeared at one time a mere scion of the evil principle and at another as all that can be conceived of noble and godlike. To be a great and virtuous man appeared the highest honour that can befall a sensitive being; to be base and vicious, as many on record have been, appeared the lowest degradation, a condition more abject than that of the blind mole or harmless worm. For a long time I could not conceive how one man could go forth to murder his fellow, or even why there were laws and governments; but when I heard details of vice and bloodshed, my wonder ceased and I turned away with disgust and loathing. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Oh! Be men, or be more than men. Be steady to your purposes and firm as a rock. This ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts may be; it is mutable and cannot withstand you if you say that it shall not. Do not return to your families with the stigma of disgrace marked on your brows. Return as heroes who have fought and conquered and who know not what it is to turn their backs on the foe. ibid. p198
I am done with man. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein 1994 starring Robert deNiro & Kenneth Branagh & Helena Bonham Carter & Ian Holm & Rory Jennings & Tom Hulce & John Cleese & Aidan Quinn & Richard Briers & Robert Hardy & Christina Cutall & Celia Imrie & Cherie Lunghi & Charles Wyn-Davies & Richard Bonneville et al, director Kenneth Branagh
Men would never be superstitious, if they could govern all their circumstances by set rules, or if they were always favoured by fortune: but being frequently driven into straits where rules are useless, and being often kept fluctuating pitiably between hope and fear by the uncertainty of fortune’s greedily coveted favours, they are consequently, for the most part, very prone to credulity. Baruch Spinoza
As men’s habits of mind differ, so that some more readily embrace one form of faith, some another, for what moves one to pray may move another to scoff, I conclude ... that everyone should be free to choose for himself the foundations of his creed, and that faith should be judged only by its fruits. Baruch Spinoza
Despite mankind’s great advances with abstract ideas and manufactured objects we remain nonetheless creatures of vigorous animal action. Desmond Morris, author The Naked Ape
Whether we like it or not we are animals and should be studied as such. But this doesn’t mean we are the same as other animals. Every species is as unique. ibid.
We learn I think that we are animals ... We have a number of predispositions, behave in certain ways, and that those cultures that have lost sight of the fact that we have certain animal qualities which are not bad qualities ... If we deny those qualities too much then we are in trouble. Desmond Morris, The Parkinson Show
The great mistake is that of looking upon men as virtuous, or thinking that they can be made so by laws. Henry St John, Lord Bolingbroke
There was never any thing by the wit of man so well devised, or so sure established, which in continuance of time hath not been corrupted. The Book of Common Prayer preface
Muhammad Ali was the greatest man to ever box. He was the greatest man to do an interview. He was the greatest man to do about anything that’s ever been done. George Foreman
Man is of no importance. Look at what happens when you starve him. He begins to eat his dead companions to stay alive. Man is only interested in his own survival. That is all that counts. All the Spinoza stuff is a lot of rubbish. Felix Dzerzinski, Polish aristocrat
We cannot judge either of the feelings or of the character of men with perfect accuracy, from their actions or their appearance in public; it is from their careless conversation, their half-finished sentences, that we may hope with the greatest probability of success to discover their real character. Maria Edgeworth, 1767-1849, Castle Rackwent, 1800
Most of us women like men, you know; it’s just that we find them a constant disappointment. Clare Short
According to a recent survey men say the first thing they notice about a woman is the eyes; and women say the first thing they notice about men is they’re a bunch of liars. Clare Short
Man is neither good nor bad; he is born with instincts and abilities. Honore de Balzac, 1799-1850, French novelist