thoughts on men

A man is what he is; not what he was.

~ Yiddish proverb

Robert Duvall is everything that an adult male should be. He is this way despite lack of height and lack of hair. We can all learn something from him.

~ jimbo, 33, general manager

There are no great men, only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet.

~ William F. Halsey

If men can run the world, why can't they stop wearing neckties? How intelligent is it to start the day by tying a little noose around your neck?

~ Linda Ellerbee

You work for the American Dream, you don't steal it.

~ A Simple Plan (1998)

You can't steal second base and keep one foot on first.

~ Anonymous

Lisa:  What do you say to a boy to let him know you're not interested?
Marge:  Well, honey, when I...
Homer:  Let me handle this, Marge, I've heard 'em all. "I like you as a friend." "I think we should see other people." "I don't speak English." "I'm married to the sea." "I don't wanna kill you, but I will."... Six simple words: "I'm not gay, but I'll learn."

~ "The Simpsons"

Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then.

~ Katharine Hepburn

The young man who has not wept is a savage and the old man who will not laugh is a fool.

~ George Santayana

Over the last couple of years, the photos of me when I was a kid, the ones that I never wanted old girlfriends see...well, they've started to give me a little pang of something—not unhappiness, exactly, but some kind of quiet, deep regret. There's one of me in a cowboy hat, pointing a gun at the camera, trying to look like a cowboy but failing, and I can hardly bring myself to look at it now. Laura thought it was sweet (she used that word! Sweet, the opposite of sour!) and pinned it up in the kitchen, but I've put it back in a drawer. I keep wanting to apologize to the little guy: "I'm sorry, I've let you down. I was the person who was supposed to look after you, but I blew it: I made wrong decisions at bad times, and I turned you into me."

~ Nick Hornby, High Fidelity

Man is what he believes.

~ Anton Chekhov

You've got to say, "I'm a human being, god-dammit. My life has value!" So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out, and yell, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

~ Angry anchor Howard Beale in Paddy Chayefsky's Network (1976)

Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit. Here is a man who stood up.

~ Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976)

"You're a man among men, Sully."
"Thanks," he said.
"It wasn't a compliment," she assured him.

~ Toby to Sully in Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo

Every man is odd.

~ Shakespeare, Hamlet

And yes, I am aware of the downside of this wonderful facility that men have: they become repressed, they fail in their relationships with women, their conversation is trivial and boorish, they find themselves unable to express their emotional needs, they cannot relate to their children, and they die lonely and miserable.

~ Nick Hornby on his obsession with soccer in Fever Pitch

Boys will be boys, and so will a lot of middle-aged men.

~ Frank McKinney "Kin" Hubbard

Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.

~ Homer, The Iliad

JOHNNY FONTANE: Oh godfather, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do.
DON CORLEONE: You can act like a man! (slaps Johnny) What's the matter with you? Is this how you turned out? A Hollywood finocchio that, ah, cries like a woman? (imitates Johnny) "What can I do?! What can I do?!" What is that nonsense? Ridiculous. (pause) You spend time with your family?
JOHNNY FONTANE: Sure I do.
DON CORLEONE: Good. 'Cause a man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man.

~ The Godfather (1972)

Your faults as a son are my failures as a father.

~ Marcus Aurelius to son Commodus in Gladiator (2000)

For rarely are sons similar to their fathers: most are worse, and a few are better than their fathers.

~ Homer, The Odyssey

Mike Damone:  I can see it all now, this is gonna be just like last summer. You fell in love with that girl at the Fotomat, you bought forty dollars worth of fuckin' film, and you never even talked to her. You don't even own a camera.

~ Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

There is not one good man on earth who does what is best and does not err.

~ Ecclesiastes

What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step.

~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Golf is a good walk spoiled.

~ Mark Twain

When a man's mother dies and, uh, he gets to thinking about her funeral and paying respects, before he knows it, his mind ain't right. He's got rabbit in his blood and he runs.

~ Cool Hand Luke (1967)

A man must be able to cut a knot, for everything cannot be untied.

~ Henri Frédéric Amiel

You know what word I'm not comfortable with? Nuance. It's not a real word. Like gesture. Gesture's a real word. With gesture you know where you stand. But nuance? I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong.

~ Modell in Barry Levinson's Diner (1982)

But men are men; the best sometimes forget.

~ Shakespeare, Othello

Lisa:  It's awful being a kid. No one listens to you.
Abe:  It's rotten being old. No one listens to you.
Homer:  I'm a white male, age 18 to 49. Everyone listens to me—no matter how dumb my suggestions are.

~ "The Simpsons"

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