Man Quotes

It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.

~ Benjamin Franklin

When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: 'Whose?'

~ Don Marquis

I never expect to see a perfect work from an imperfect man.

~ Alexander Hamilton

No man ever got very high by pulling other people down. The intelligent merchant does not knock his competitors. The sensible worker does not knock those who work with him. Don't knock your friends. Don't knock your enemies. Don't knock yourself.

~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.

~ Elbert Hubbard

What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god.

~ William Shakespeare

And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

~ Jesus Christ

The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of the planter - for the future. His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way.

~ Nikola Tesla

It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things.

~ Theodore Roosevelt

Work is not man's punishment. It is his reward and his strength and his pleasure.

~ George Sand

A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the 'why' for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any 'how.'

~ Viktor E. Frankl

Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work.

~ Thomas A. Edison

Man was made at the end of the week's work, when God was tired.

~ Mark Twain

Every man loves what he is good at.

~ Thomas Shadwell

A man can believe a considerable deal of rubbish, and yet go about his daily work in a rational and cheerful manner.

~ Norman Douglas

Such is the audacity of man, that he hath learned to counterfeit Nature, yea, and is so bold as to challenge her in her work.

~ Pliny The Elder

We should work for simple, good, undecorated things, but things which are in harmony with the human being and organically suited to the little man in the street.

~ Alvar Aalto

There's a difference between someone who's 'harsh' and someone who is 'hard.' Life was hard. You lived in the South, as my grandparents did, and you had to survive. That is hard. In order to respond to that, he had to become a hard man, with very hard rules, very hard discipline for himself, very hard days, hard work, et cetera.

~ Clarence Thomas

I think the term poet is a very exalted term and should be applied to a man at the end of his work. When he looks back over the body of his work and he's written poetry then let the verdict be that he's a poet.

~ Leonard Cohen

Work is a necessity for man. Man invented the alarm clock.

~ Pablo Picasso

O man you are busy working for the world, and the world is busy trying to turn you out.

~ Abu Bakr

One man's wage increase is another man's price increase.

~ Harold Wilson

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.

~ Henry David Thoreau

Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.

~ Arthur Schopenhauer

Power is not of a man. Wealth does not center in the person of the wealthy. Celebrity is not inherent in any personality. To be celebrated, to be wealthy, to have power requires access to major institutions.

~ C. Wright Mills

John Muir, the famous naturalist, wrote in his journal that you should never go to Alaska as a young man because you'll never be satisfied with any other place as long as you live. And there's a lot of truth to that.

~ Tom Bodett

I remember being superyoung, like nine or ten years old, and thinking, 'Man, I wonder what famous people eat for breakfast. They must have some special kind of cereal!' My mind was so warped by the idea of fame.

~ Bo Burnham

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 Matthew Adams

Martyrdom: The only way a man can become famous without ability.

~ George Bernard Shaw

My father was this famous heart surgeon, a wonderful man... but there was something about me that drove him crazy.

~ Dominick Dunne

Evictions used to be rare in this country. They used to draw crowds. There are scenes in literature where you can come upon an eviction - like, in 'Invisible Man' there's the famous eviction scene in Harlem, and people are gathered around, and they move the family back in.

~ Matthew Desmond

My mum had a massive influence on me, not just in what she wore and how she looked, but in her spirit. She was married to one of the most famous men in the world, and she didn't wear any makeup, ever. I mean, have you ever seen the wife of a man like that rock up with no makeup on? Because I haven't since.

~ Stella Mccartney

Everything I achieve affects my family as well, and suddenly, my kids' dad became the most famous man in the country for a couple of weeks.

~ Bradley Wiggins

There has been a time on earth when poets had been young and dead and famous - and were men. But now the poet as the tragic child of grandeur and destiny had changed. The child of genius was a woman, now, and the man was gone.

~ Tom Wolfe

I didn't get into writing to make money or get famous or any of that. I got into it to hit hearts, and man, when I get letters not just from the soldiers but from their kids, especially their kids, it makes it all worthwhile.

~ Tim O'brien

Honestly, this face of mine will always be familiar to people. It's that unique quality, man. If it's a dark and crowded room, people are just able to point me out. I think I'll always be famous. I just hope I don't become infamous.

~ Ceelo Green

There's the famous thing that the A&R man from the record company is supposed to do: He's supposed to come into the studio and listen to the songs you've been recording and then say, 'Guys, I don't hear any singles.' And then everybody falls into a terrible depression because you have to write one.

~ Jarvis Cocker

Fame changes everything. When you're well-known, you're expected to be different. Some people assume you must have a yacht and four homes. Or that you're famous because you are 'A Decent Man'.

~ Michael Palin

Although I'm not an orphan and I can't lift a horse. I was, however, briefly famous for my feats of strength: at about age 11, I could competitively arm-wrestle a full-grown man.

~ Lisa Lutz

I never wanted to do biography just to tell the life of a famous man. I always wanted to use the life of a man to examine political power, because democracy shapes our lives.

~ Robert Caro