The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Alas! it is not the child but the boy that generally survives in the man.
—Arthur Helps (1813–75) English Dramatist, Essayist
When a man is wrong and won’t admit it, he always gets angry.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796–1865) Canadian Author, Humorist, Businessperson, Judge
Some men are like nails, very easily drawn; others however are more like rivets never drawn at all.
—John Burroughs (1837–1921) American Naturalist, Writer
It is easier to know men in general, than men in particular.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
A pretty little collection of weaknesses and a terror of spiders are our indispensable stock-in-trade with the men.
—Colette (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
Man is always looking for someone to boast to; woman is always looking for a shoulder to put her head on.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
If women were as fastidious as men, morally or physically, there would be an end of the race.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Men wake up aroused in the morning. We can’t help it. We just wake up and we want you. And the women are thinking, “How can he want me the way I look in the morning?” It’s because we can’t see you. We have no blood anywhere near our optic nerve.
—Andy Rooney (b.1919) American Writer, Humorist, TV Personality
But as to women, who can penetrate the real sufferings of their she condition? Man’s very sympathy with their estate has much of selfishness and more suspicion. Their love, their virtue, beauty, education, but form good housekeepers, to breed a nation.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
A bachelor’s life is a fine breakfast, a flat lunch, and a miserable dinner.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
With men he can be rational and unaffected, but when he has ladies to please, every feature works.
—Jane Austen (1775–1817) English Novelist
Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
God gave us all a penis and a brain, but only enough blood to run one at a time.
—Robin Williams (b.1951) American Actor, Comedian
That is, in a great degree, true of all men, which was said of the Athenians, that they were like sheep, of which a flock is more easily driven than a single one.
—Richard Whately (1787–1863) English Philosopher, Theologian
Look, we’re all the same; a man is a fourteen-room house—in the bedroom he’s asleep with his intelligent wife, in the living-room he’s rolling around with some bareass girl, in the library he’s paying his taxes, in the yard he’s raising tomatoes, and in the cellar he’s making a bomb to blow it all up.
—Arthur Miller (1915–2005) American Playwright, Essayist
Men in general are quick to believe that which they wish to be true.
—Julius Caesar (c.100–44BCE) Roman Statesman, Military General
Considering the absence of legal coercion, the surprising thing is that men have for so long, and, on the whole, so reliably, adhered to what we might call the “breadwinner ethic.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b.1941) American Social Critic, Essayist
If you teach a poor young man to shave himself, and keep his razor in order, you may contribute more to the happiness of his life than in giving him a thousand guineas. This sum may be soon spent, the regret only remaining of having foolishly consumed it; but in the other case, he escapes the frequent vexation of waiting for barbers, and of their sometimes dirty fingers, offensive breaths, and dull razors.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
When you see a woman who can go nowhere without a staff of admirers, it is not so much because they think she is beautiful, it is because she has told them they are handsome.
—Jean Giraudoux (1882–1944) French Novelist, Playwright, Essayist
Men are not to be told anything they might find too painful; the secret depths of human nature, the sordid physicalities, might overwhelm or damage them. For instance, men often faint at the sight of their own blood, to which they are not accustomed. For this reason you should never stand behind one in the line at the Red Cross donor clinic.
—Margaret Atwood (b.1939) Canadian Writer, Poet, Critic
The most threatened group in human societies as in animal societies is the unmated male: the unmated male is more likely to wind up in prison or in an asylum or dead than his mated counterpart. He is less likely to be promoted at work and he is considered a poor credit risk.
—Germaine Greer (b.1939) Australia Academic, Journalist, Scholar, Writer
There is something to me very softening in the presence of a woman, some strange influence, even if one is not in love with them, which I cannot at all account for, having no very high opinion of the sex. But yet, I always feel in better humor with myself and every thing else, if there is a woman within ken.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Poor little men, poor little cocks! As soon as they’re old enough, they swell their plumage to be conquerors. If they only knew that it’s enough to be just a little bit wounded and sad in order to obtain everything without fighting for it.
—Jean Anouilh (1910–87) French Dramatist
The masculine imagination lives in a state of perpetual revolt against the limitations of human life. In theological terms, one might say that all men, left to themselves, become gnostics. They may swagger like peacocks, but in their heart of hearts they all think sex an indignity and wish they could beget themselves on themselves. Hence the aggressive hostility toward women so manifest in most club-car stories.
—W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist
The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
Either sex alone is half itself.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
There is no kind of harassment that a man may not inflict on a woman with impunity in civilized societies.
—Denis Diderot (1713–84) French Philosopher, Writer
You can tell the size of a man by the size of the thing that makes him mad.
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–65) American Diplomat, Politician, Orator
Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Men aren’t the way they are because they want to drive women crazy; they’ve been trained to be that way for thousands of years. And that training makes it very difficult for men to be intimate.
—Barbara De Angelis (b.1951) American Lecturer, Author, TV Personality, Motivational Speaker
Did you hear about the baby born with organs of both sexes? It had a penis and a brain.
—Unknown
The male has been persuaded to assume a certain onerous and disagreeable role with the promise of rewards—material and psychological. Women may in the first place even have put it into his head. BE A MAN! may have been, metaphorically, what Eve uttered at the critical moment in the garden of Eden.
—Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957) English Novelist, Painter, Critic
Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
I think the worst woman that ever existed would have made a man of very passable reputation—they are all better than us and their faults such as they are must originate with ourselves.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
The source of all life and knowledge is in man and woman, and the source of all living is in the interchange and the meeting and mingling of these two: man-life and woman-life, man-knowledge and woman-knowledge, man-being and woman-being.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
Let sinful bachelors their woes deplore; full well they merit all they feel, and more: unaw by precepts, human or divine, like birds and beasts, promiscuously they join.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
Men are but children, too, though they have gray hairs; they are only of a larger size.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
It is difficulties that show what men are.
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Men mourn for what they have lost; women for what they ain’t got.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
I do not know who first invented the myth of sexual equality. But it is a myth willfully fostered and nourished by certain semi-scientists and other fiction writers. And it has done more, I suspect, to unsettle marital happiness than any other false doctrine of this myth-ridden age.
—Phyllis McGinley (1905–78) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Writer of Children’s Books
Men are just as sensitive, and in some ways more sensitive, than women are.
—Barbara De Angelis (b.1951) American Lecturer, Author, TV Personality, Motivational Speaker
That man is idle who can do something better.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Men are what their mothers made them. You may as well ask a loom which weaves huckaback, why it does not make cashmere, as expect poetry from this engineer, or a chemical discovery from that jobber.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Bachelors know more about women than married men; if they didn’t, they’d be married too.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
Men are like the earth and we are the moon; we turn always one side to them, and they think there is no other, because they don’t see it—but there is.
—Olive Schreiner (1855–1920) South African Writer, Feminist
If you treat an individual… as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Upscale young men seem to go for the kind of woman who plays with a full deck of credit cards, who won’t cry when she’s knocked to the ground while trying to board the six o clock Eastern shuttle, and whose schedule doesn’t allow for a sexual encounter lasting more than twelve minutes.
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b.1941) American Social Critic, Essayist