Great English Quotes and Aphorisms on Man and Men by famous writers

An aphorism is nothing else but the slightest
form of writing raised to the highest level of expressive communication. Carl William Brown

60,000 QUOTES SPIDER

QUOTES AND APHORISMS ON MEN 1

A memorandum is not written to inform the reader, but to protect the writer.

Dean Acheson (1893-1971, American statesman, lawyer)

Man is made up of about 80% water so it is no wonder that he is polluted.

Carl William Brown (1960 - , Italian writer, aphorist, teacher and trader)

There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion.

Lord Acton (1834-1902, British historian)

Each day can be one of triumph if you keep up your interests.

George M. Adams (1878-1962, American author)

The organized person... makes the most of his time and goes to his bed for the night perfectly relaxed for rest and renewal.

George M. Adams (1878-1962, American author)

There are high spots in all of our lives and most of them have come about through encouragement from someone else. I don't care how great, how famous or successful a man or woman may be, each hungers for applause.

George M. Adams (1878-1962, American author)

The woman who is known only through a man is known wrong.

Henry Brooks Adams (1838-1918, American historian)

Fear is the foundation of most government.

John Adams (1735-1826, American President (2nd))

A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719, British essayist, poet, statesman)

Arguments out of a pretty mouth are unanswerable.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719, British essayist, poet, statesman)

As vivacity is the gift of women, gravity is that of men.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719, British essayist, poet, statesman)

Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719, British essayist, poet, statesman)

To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719, British essayist, poet, statesman)

The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.

Larry Adler (1914-2001, American founder of Fire & All Risk Insurances)

Nothing defines the quality of life in a community more clearly than people who regard themselves, or whom the consensus chooses to regard, as mentally unwell.

Renata Adler (American author of essays, short stories, journalism, book reviews, and film critic)

Time brings all things to pass.

Aeschylus (525-456 BC, Greek dramatist)

I cannot afford to waste my time making money.

Louis Agassiz (1807-1873, Swiss-born American naturalist)

If I have done any deed worthy of remembrance, that deed will be my monument. If not, no monument can preserve my memory.

Agesilaus II (444-360 BC, King of Sparta from 399-360 BC)

A government, for protecting business only, is but a carcass, and soon falls by its own corruption and decay.

Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888, American educator, social reformer)

Fame is a pearl many dive for and only a few bring up. Even when they do, it is not perfect, and they sigh for more, and lose better things in struggling for them.

Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888, American author)

A bachelor is a man who comes to work each morning from a different direction.

Sholom Aleichem (1859-1916, Ukraine-born American writer)

What keeps me going is goals.

Muhammad Ali (1942-, American boxer)

A great flame follows a little spark.

Dante Alighieri

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.

Dante Alighieri

A gentleman is any man who wouldn't hit a woman with his hat on.

Fred A. Allen (1894-1957, American radio comic)

I don't want to own anything that won't fit into my coffin.

Fred A. Allen (1894-1957, American radio comic)

A man is not rightly conditioned until he is a happy, healthy, and prosperous being; and happiness, health, and prosperity are the result of a harmonious adjustment of the inner with the outer of the man with his surroundings.

James Allen (1864-1912, British-born American essayist, author, "As A Man Thinketh")

Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.

James Allen (1864-1912, British-born American essayist, author, "As A Man Thinketh")

Capital punishment would be more effective as a preventive measure if it were administered prior to the crime.

Woody Allen (1935-, American director, screenwriter, actor, comedian)

Showing up is 80 percent of life.

Woody Allen (1935-, American director, screenwriter, actor, comedian)

Hire the best. Pay them fairly. Communicate frequently. Provide challenges and rewards. Believe in them. Get out of their way and they'll knock your socks off.

Mary Ann Allison (American author)

We should be lenient in our judgment, because often the mistakes of others would have been ours had we had the opportunity to make them.

R. L. Dr. Alsaker (American doctor, authority on foods and feeding)

A man is known by the company he organizes.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914, American author, editor, journalist, "The Devil's Dictionary")

Acquaintance: a degree of friendship called slight when its object is poor or obscure, and intimate when he is rich or famous.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914, American author, editor, journalist, "The Devil's Dictionary")

An acquaintance is someone we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914, American author, editor, journalist, "The Devil's Dictionary")

Prisons are built with stones of Law. Brothels with the bricks of religion.

William Blake (1757-1827, British poet, painter)

The hours of folly are measured by the clock, but of wisdom no clock can measure.

William Blake (1757-1827, British poet, painter)

He who asks of life nothing but the improvement of his own nature… is less liable than anyone else to miss and waste life.

Henri Frederic Amiel (1821-1881, Swiss philosopher, poet, critic)

Time wasted is a theft from God.

Henri Frederic Amiel (1821-1881, Swiss philosopher, poet, critic)

Our Congress is the finest body of men money can buy.

Maury Amsterdam (American comedian, a regular on The Dick Van Dyke show)

Wise men argue cases, fools decide them.

Anacharsis (600 BC, Scythian philosopher)

Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.

Greg Anderson (American author, "The 22 Non-Negotiable Laws of Wellness")

The great thing to learn about life is, first, not to do what you don't want to do, and, second, to do what you do want to do.

Margaret Anderson (1886 -1973, American literary editor and autobiographer)

A man's brain has a more difficult time shifting from thinking to feeling than a women's brain does.

Barbara De Angelis (American expert on relationship & love, author)

Men are just as sensitive, and in some ways more sensitive, than women are.

Barbara De Angelis (American expert on relationship & love, author)

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 (American expert on relationship & love, author)

When you make a commitment to a relationship, you invest your attention and energy in it more profoundly because you now experience ownership of that relationship.

Barbara De Angelis (American expert on relationship & love, author)

Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence -- neither speed up nor slow down, add to nor diminish -- it is an imponderably valuable gift. Each of us has a few minutes a day or a few hours a week which we could donate to an old folks home or a children's hospital ward. The elderly whose pillows we plump or whose water pitchers we refill may or may not thank us for our gift, but the gift is upholding the foundation of the universe.

Maya Angelou (1928-, African-American poet, writer, performer)

Author's website: www.mayaangelou.com

The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn't need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder -- in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.

Maya Angelou (1928-, African-American poet, writer, performer)

Author's website: www.mayaangelou.com

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 (1910-1987, French playwright)

To say yes, you have to sweat and roll up your sleeves and plunge both hands into life up to the elbows. It's easy to say no, even if it means dying.

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987, French playwright)

We must not contradict, but instruct him that contradicts us; for a madman is not cured by another running mad also.

Antisthenes (388-311 BC, Greek dramatist)

Man forgives women anything save the wit to outwit him.

Minna Antrim (1861-1950, American epigrammist)

When a woman is very, very bad, she is awful, but when a man is correspondingly good, he is weird.

Minna Antrim (1861-1950, American epigrammist)

Time is a very shadow that passeth away.

Apocrypha (A collection of fourteen books written after the last book of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and before the first book of the Christian Scriptures (New Testament).)

Women like silent men. They think they're listening.

Marcel Archard (1889–1974, Film writer and director)

These impossible women! How they do get around us! The poet was right: Can't live with them, or without them.

Aristophanes (BC 448-380, Greek comic poet, satirist)

For what is the best choice, for each individual is the highest it is possible for him to achieve.

Aristotle (BC 384-322, Greek philosopher)

Great men are always of a nature originally melancholy.

Aristotle (BC 384-322, Greek philosopher)

So it is naturally with the male and the female; the one is superior, the other inferior; the one governs, the other is governed; and the same rule must necessarily hold good with respect to all mankind.

Aristotle (BC 384-322, Greek philosopher)

The generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear rather than reverence, and to refrain from evil rather because of the punishment that it brings than because of its own foulness.

Aristotle (BC 384-322, Greek philosopher)

When the archer misses the mark, he turns and looks for the fault within himself. Failure to hit the bull's eye is never the fault of the target. To improve your aim -- improve yourself.

Gilbert Arland

He who lets time rule him will live the life of a slave.

John Arthorne (American researcher)

Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I may not forget you.

William Arthur

There is a need to find and sing our own song, to stretch our limbs and shake them in a dance so wild that nothing can roost there, that stirs the yearning for solitary voyage.

Barbara Lazear Ascher

I am partial to ladies if they are nice. I suppose it is my nature. I am not quite a gentleman but you would hardly notice it.

Daisy Ashford (American author)

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992, Russian-born American author)

Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992, Russian-born American author)

Without forgiveness life is governed... by an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation.

Robert Assaglioli

If all men are born free, why is it that all women are born slaves?

Mary Astell (1666-1731, British writer)

Women have got to make the world safe for men since men have made it so darned unsafe for women.

Lady Nancy Astor (1897-1964, British politician)

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 (1939-, Canadian novelist, poet, critic)

She even had a kind of special position among men: she was an exception, she fitted none of the categories they commonly used when talking about girls; she wasn't a cock-teaser, a cold fish, an easy lay or a sneaky bitch; she was an honorary person.

Margaret Atwood (1939-, Canadian novelist, poet, critic)

Left to itself the masculine imagination has very little appreciation for the here and now; it prefers to dwell on what is absent, on what has been or may be. If men are more punctual than women, it is because they know that, without the external discipline of clock time, they would never get anything done.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973, Anglo-American poet)

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 (1907-1973, Anglo-American poet)

If sufficient number of management layers are superimposed on top of each other, it can be assured that disaster is not left to chance.

Norman Augustine (American business executive, CEO of Martin Marietta)

If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgment of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now.