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Man: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
On his weary couch Fat Luxury, sick of the night's debauch, Lay groaning, fretful at the obtrusive beam That through his lattice peeped derisively.— POLLOK — Course of Time. Bk. VII. L. 69.
Luxury is an enticing pleasure, a bastard mirth, which hath honey in her mouth, gall in her heart, and a sting in her tail.— QUARLES — Emblems. Bk. I. Hugo.
Rings put upon his fingers, A most delicious banquet by his bed, And brave attendants near him when he wakes, Would not the beggar then forget himself? Taming of the Shrew. Induction. Sc. 1. L. 38. Falsely luxurious, will not man awake?— THOMSON — The Seasons. Summer. L. 67.
The man forget not, though in rags he lies, And know the mortal through a crown's disguise.— AKENSIDE — Epistle to Curio.
Man only,-rash, refined, presumptuous Man- Starts from his rank, and mars Creation's plan! Born the free heir of nature's wide domain, To art's strict limits bounds his narrow'd reign; Resigns his native rights for meaner things, For Faith and Fetters, Laws and Priests and Kings. Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin. The Progress of Man. L. 55. My Lord St. Albans said that wise nature did never put her precious jewels into a garret four stories high; and therefore that exceeding tall men had ever very empty heads.— BACON — Apothegms. No. 17. From
Rawley's Common Place Book. Let each man think himself an act of God, His mind a thought, his life a breath of God.— BAILEY — Festus. Proem. L. 162.
Man is the nobler growth our realms supply, And souls are ripened in our northern sky.— ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD — The
Invitation. There is no Theam more plentifull to scan, Then is the glorious goodly Frame of Man. S.— DU BARTAS — Divine Weekes and Workes. First Week, Sixth Day. L. 421.
Thou wilt scarce be a man before thy mother.— BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER — Love's Cure. Act II. Sc. 2.
Man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes and pompous in the grave.— SIR THOMAS BROWNE — Urn Burial. Ch. V.
A man's a man for a' that!— BURNS — For A' That and A' That.
A prince can mak a belted knight, A marquis, duke, and a' that; But an honest man's aboon his might: Guid faith, he maunna fa' that.— BURNS — For A' That and A' That.
Man, whose heaven-erected face The smiles of love adorn, - Man's inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn!— BURNS — Man Was Made to Mourn.
But we, who name ourselves its sovereigns, we, Half dust, half deity, alike unfit To sink or soar.— BYRON — Manfred. Act I. Sc. 2. L.39.
Lord of himself; - that heritage of woe!— BYRON — Lara. Canto I. St. 2.
The precious porcelain of human clay.— BYRON — Don Juan. Canto IV. St. 11.
Man! Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear.— BYRON — Childe Harold. Canto IV. St. 109.
Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine, And all, save the spirit of man, is divine?— BYRON — The Bride of Abydos. Canto I. St. 1.
Without our hopes, without our fears, Without the home that plighted love endears, Without the smile from partial beauty won, Oh! what were man?-a world without a sun.— CAMPBELL — Pleasures of Hope. Pt. II. L. 21.
No sadder proof can be given by a man of his own littleness than disbelief in great men.— CARLYLE — Heroes and Hero Worship.
Lecture I. The proper Science and Subject for Man's Contemplation is Man himself.— CHARRON — Of Wisdom. Bk. I. Ch. I.
Stanhope's trans. Men the most infamous are fond of fame: And those who fear not guilt, yet start at shame.— CHURCHILL — The Author. L. 233.
A self-made man? Yes-and worships his creator. HENRY CLAPP. Said also by JOHN
Before man made us citizens, great Nature made us men.— LOWELL — The Capture of Fugitive Slaves
Near Washington. Three-fifths of him genius and two-fifths sheer fudge.— LOWELL — Fable for Critics. L. 1,296.
The hearts of men are their books; events are their tutors; great actions are their eloquence.— MACAULAY — Essays. Conversation
Touching the Great Civil War. Pouter, tumbler, and fantail are from the same source; The racer and hack may be traced to one Horse; So men were developed from monkeys of course, Which nobody can deny.— LORD NEAVES — The Origin of Species.
What a chimera, then, is man! what a novelty, what a monster, what a chaos, what a subject of contradiction, what a prodigy! A judge of all things, feeble worm of the earth, depositary of the truth, eloaca of uncertainty and error, the glory and the shame of the universe!— PASCAL — Thoughts. Ch. X.
Fields and trees are not willing to teach me anything; but this can be effected by men residing in the city. S.— PLATO — Works. Vol. III.
The Phædrus. A minister, but still a man.— POPE — Epistle to James Craggs.
An honest man's the noblest work of God.— POPE — Essay on Man. Ep. IV. L. 248.
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused; Still by himself abused and disabused; Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled; The glory, jest and riddle of the world!— POPE — Essay on Man. Ep. 2. L. 13.
Let us (since life can little more supply Than just to look about us and to die) Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man; A mighty maze! but not without a plan.— POPE — Essay on Man. Ep. I. L. 1.
Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.— POPE — Essay on Man. Ep. II. L. 1.
So man, who here seems principal alone, Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown, Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal; '"Tis but a part we see, and not a whole.— POPE — Essay on Man. Ep. I. L. 57.
Virtuous and vicious every man must be, Few in the extreme, but all in the degree.— POPE — Essay on Man. Ep. II. L. 231.
Why has not man a microscopic eye? For this plain reason, man is not a fly.— POPE — Essay on Man. Ep. I. L. 193.
So, if unprejudiced you scan The goings of this clock-work, man, You find a hundred movements made By fine devices in his head; But 'tis the stomach's solid stroke That tells his being what's o'clock.— PRIOR — Alma; or, the Progress of the Mind. Pt. III. L. 272.
"How poor a thing is man!" alas 'tis true I'd half forgot it when I chanced on you.— SCHILLER — The Moral Poet.
A proper man as one shall see in a summer's day. Midsummer-Night's Dream. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 89. Are you good men and true?— Shakespeare — Much Ado About Nothing. Act III. Act III. Sc. 3. L. 1.
For men, like butterflies, Show not their mealy wings but to the summer.— Shakespeare — Troilus and Cressida. Act III. Sc. 3. L. 78.
Give me that man That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart, As I do thee.— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 76.
God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man.— Shakespeare — Merchant of Venice. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 60.
He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 187.
His life was gentle, and the elements So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up, And say to all the world, This was a man! Julius Cæsar. Act V. Sc. 5. L. 73. I have thought some of Nature's journeymen had made men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 37.
I wonder men dare trust themselves with men.— Shakespeare — Timon of Athens. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 42.
Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings. Julius Cæsar. Act I. Sc. 2. L.
Men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them, but not for love.— Shakespeare — As You Like It. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 105.
Men that make Envy and crooked malice nourishment, . Dare bite the best.— Shakespeare — Henry VIII. Act V. Sc. 3. L. 43.
The foremost man of all this world. Julius Cæsar. Act IV. Sc. 3. L. 22. What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not me: no, nor women neither, though by your smiling, you seem to say so.— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 313.
What is a man, If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed?— Shakespeare — S. Hamlet. Act IV. Sc. 4. L. 33.
Why, he's a man of wax.— Shakespeare — Romeo and Juliet. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 76.
Man is of soul and body, formed for deeds Of high resolve; on fancy's boldest wing. и.— SHELLEY — Queen Mab. Canto IV. L. 160.
Of the king's creation you may be; but he who makes a count, ne'er made a man.— THOMAS SOUTHERNE — Sir Anthony Love. Act II. Sc. 1.
*** Man's wretched state, That floures so fresh at morne, and fades at evening late.— SPENSER — Faerie Queene. Bk. III. Canto IX. St. 39.
A man's body and his mind, with the utmost reverence to both I speak it, are exactly like a jerkin and a jerkin's lining;-rumple the one, you rumple the other.— STERNE — Tristram Shandy. Bk. III.
X. Ch. IV. When I beheld this I sighed, and said within myself, Surely man is a Broomstick!— SWIFT — A Meditation upon a Broomstick.
But what am I? An infant crying in the night: An infant crying for the light, And with no language but a cry.— TENNYSON — In Memoriam. LIV. St. 5.
I am a part of all that I have met.— TENNYSON — Ulysses. L. 18.
Man is man, and master of his fate.— TENNYSON — Enid. Song of Fortune and
Her Wheel. That men may rise on stepping-stones Of their dead selves to higher things.— TENNYSON — In Memoriam. Pt. I.
C. I am a man, nothing that is human do I think unbecoming in me.— TERENCE — Heauton-Timoroumenos. Act I. Sc. 1. F. W. Ricord's trans.
The mind's the standard of the man.— WATTS — Horæ Lyricæ. Bk. II. False
Greatness. When faith is lost, when honor dies, The man is dead!— WHITTIER — Ichabod. St. 8.
I weigh the man, not his title; 'tis not the king's stamp can make the metal better or heavier.— WYCHERLY — The Plaindealer. Act I. Sc. 1.
Ah! how unjust to nature, and himself, Is thoughtless, thankless, inconsistent man.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night II. L. 112.
How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, How complicate, how wonderful, is man! How passing wonder He, who made him such!— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night I. L. 68.
The man of wisdom is the man of years.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night V. L. 775.
Homo ad duas res, ad intelligendum et ad agendum, est natus. Man was born for two things-thinking and acting.— CICERO — De Finibus Bonorum et
Malorum. II. 13. Ad unguem factus homo. A man polished to the nail.— HORACE — Satiræ. I. 5. 32.
Metiri se quemque suo modulo ac pede verum est. Every man should measure himself by his own standard.— HORACE — Epistolæ. I. 7. 98.
Consilia res magis dant hominibus quam homines rebus. Men's plans should be regulated by the circumstances, not circumstances by the plans.— LIVY — Annales. XXII. 39.
Quis fallere possit amantem? Who can deceive a lover?— VIRGIL — Eneid. IV. 296.
Ah! pour être devot, je n'en suis pas moins homme. Ah! to be devout, I am none the less human.— MOLIÈRE — Le Tartuffe. III. 3.
Il est plus aisé de connaître l'homme en général que de connaître un homme en particulier. It is easier to know mankind in general than man individually.— LA ROCHEFOUCAULD — Maximes. 436.
Le style c'est de l'homme. The style is the man himself.— BUFFON — Œuvres Choisies. Liv. I.
P. 25. Der edle Mensch ist nur ein Bild von Gott. The noble man is only God's image.— LUDWIG TIECK — Genoveva.
Der Mensch ist, der lebendig fühlende, Der leichte Raub des mächt'gen Augenblicks. Man, living, feeling man is the easy prey of the powerful present.— SCHILLER — Die Jungfrau von Orleans.
III. 4. 54. Die Menschen fürchtet nur, wer sie nicht kennt Und wer sie meidet, wird sie bald verkennen. He only fears men who does not know them, and he who avoids them will soon misjudge them.— GOETHE — Torquato Tasso. I. 2. 72.
Lass uns, geliebter Bruder, nicht vergessen, Dass von sich selbst der Mensch nicht scheiden kann. Beloved brother, let us not forget that man can never get away from himself.— GOETHE — Torquato Tasso. I. 2. 85.