“Measures must always in a progressive society be held superior to men, who are after all imperfect instruments, working for their fulfilment.”
What does it mean to be a man? These quotes explore masculinity, fatherhood, strength, vulnerability, and the evolving expectations placed on men by society, by women, and by themselves.
“There is no such thing as justice in the abstract it is merely a compact between men.”
“Measures must always in a progressive society be held superior to men, who are after all imperfect instruments, working for their fulfilment.”
“Truth sits upon the lips of dying men.”
“A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”
“The real use of gunpowder is to make all men tall.”
“Men exist for the sake of one another.”
“Women think with their whole bodies and they see things as a whole more than men do.”
“Plain women know more about men than beautiful women do.”
“An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men.”
“All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.”
“Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?”
“When a nation's young men are conservative, its funeral bell is already rung.”
“Men do not quit playing because they grow old they grow old because they quit playing.”
“Men blaspheme what they do not know.”
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.”
“'Tis easy enough to be pleasant, When life flows along like a song But the man worth while is the one who will smile when everything goes dead wrong.”