“Gentlemen, let us suppose that man is not stupid. (Indeed one cannot refuse to suppose that, if only from the one consideration, that, if man is stupid, then who is wise?) But if he is not stupid, he is monstrously ungrateful! Phenomenally ungrateful. In fact, I believe that the best definition of man is the ungrateful biped.”
“The naked woman’s body is a portion of eternity too great for the eye of man.”
“The humble sinner will sometimes be interpreted as one of the filthiest in the eyes of man yet immersed in the eyes of God, and this is due to the volition of honesty regarding his own corruption.”
“Never test another man by your own weakness.”
“It is only when a man tames his own demons that he becomes the king of himself if not of the world.”
“No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance.”
“Man is a demon, man is a god. Both true.”
“I’d never seen a man cry before, only on TV. I’d never even seen Dad close to crying. Those tears looked so odd on you. It was like the strength of you just seemed to sap away. The surprise of it stopped me from being so scared.”
“Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool.”
“They had discovered one could grow as hungry for light as for food.”
“God created man and, finding him not sufficiently alone, gave him a companion to make him feel his solitude more keenly”
“They were close to the end of the beginning . . .”
“Monsters are easy, Miss Rook. They re monsters. But a monster in a suit? That s basically just a wicked man, and a wicked man is a more dangerous thing by far.”
“Man has no automatic code of survival. His particular distinction from all other living species is the necessity to act in the face of alternatives by means of volitional choice. He has no automatic knowledge of what is good for him or evil, what values his life depends on, what course of action it requires. Are you prattling about an instinct of self-preservation? An instinct of self-preservation is precisely what man does not possess. An instinct in as unerring and automatic form of knowledge. A desire is not an instinct. A desire to live does not give you the knowledge required for living. And even man s desire to live is not automatic: your secret evil today is that that is the desire you do not hold. Your fear of death is not a love of life and will not give you the knowledge needed to keep it. Man must obtain his knowledge and choose his actions by a process of thinking, which nature will not force him to perform. Man has the power to act as his own destroyer--and that is the way he has acted through most of history.”
“Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives. Man s life is independent. He is born not for the development of the society alone, but for the development of his self too.”
“Man is a spiritual being, a soul, and at some period of his life everyone is possessed with an irresistible desire to know his relationship to the Infinite. . . . There is something within him which urges him to rise above himself, to control his environment, to master the body and all things physical and live in a higher and more beautiful world.”
“Why, you are a man of heart! Sometimes, replied Phileas Fogg, quietly. When I have the time.”