The whole shadow of Man is only as big as his hat.
ELIZABETH BISHOP, North & South
I've never gone anywhere where the men have come up to my infantile expectations. I always have gone through life constantly being surprised by the extreme, marvelous qualities of a small minority of men. But I can't see the rest of them. They seem awful rubbish.
REBECCA WEST, The Paris Review, spring 1981
What a man is is an arrow into the future and what a woman is is the place the arrow shoots off from.
SYLVIA PLATH, The Bell Jar
All men seemed to be self-serving, selfish, insensitive pigs, just waiting for an opportunity to act like greater self-serving, selfish, insensitive pigs.
- Men only disagree
- Of Creatures rational, though under hope
- Of heavenly Grace; and God proclaiming peace,
- Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife
- Among themselves, and levy cruel wars,
- Wasting the Earth, each other to destroy:
- As if (which might induce us to accord)
- Man had not hellish foes enough besides,
- That day and night for his destruction wait.
JOHN MILTON, Paradise Lost
Men aren't allowed to have self-esteem, because we're already supposed to have all the power.... But most men earn less than they want, barely the minimum wage. They're drones. They do stuff they don't want to do to support their families, and they're not sure why they do it. They don't know what they're doing half the time, and any time we stick up for ourselves, we're pigs because we don't know how to articulate our frustrations and joys.
TIM ALLEN, Parade Magazine, Oct. 27, 2002
It's funny what they say about men in uniform -- how people think women just can't resist 'em. Fact is, I think we're just pleased to see a man groomed, bathed, and wearing clothes that fit him.
CHERIE PRIEST, Dreadnought
- How many roads must a man walk down
- Before you call him a man?
BOB DYLAN, "Blowin' in the Wind"
Any live man is better than any dead man but no live or dead man is very much better than any other live or dead man.
WILLIAM FAULKNER, The Sound and the Fury
Men changed whatever they set hand to. They wrought their magic on beasts, to make them dull and patient. They brought fire and the reek of smoke to the dales. They brought lines and order to the curve of the hills. Most of all they brought the chill of iron, to sweep away the ancient shadows.
C. J. CHERRYH, The Dreamstone
They're all alike ... at first they behave very well, they're obedient and prompt and they don't seem capable of killing a fly, but as soon as their beards appear they go to ruin.
GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ, One Hundred Years of Solitude
I would catch sight of some flawless man off in the distance, but as soon as he moved closer I immediately saw he wouldn't do at all.
SYLVIA PLATH, The Bell Jar
I don't understand men. I don't even understand what I don't understand about men.
MAUREEN DOWD, Are Men Necessary?
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