That your sex are naturally tyrannical is a truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute; but such of you as wish to ...be happy willingly give up the harsh title of master for the more tender and endearing one of friend.... Men of sense in all ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your sex; regard us then as being placed by Providence under your protection, and in imitation of the Supreme Being make use of that power only for our happiness.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is not women's fault if we are so tender. It is in the nature of the lives we live. And further, it would be a terrible catastr...ophe if men had to live men's lives and women's also. Which is precisely what has happened today--to women.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Who has not imagined to himself a country inn, where the traveler shall really feel in, and at home, and at his public house, who ...was before at his private house?--whose host is indeed a host, and a lord of the land, a self-appointed brother of his race; called to his place, beside, by all the winds of heaven and his good genius, as truly as the preacher is called to preach; a man of such universal sympathies, and so broad and genial a human nature, that he would fain sacrifice the tender but narrow ties of private friendship to a broad, sun-shiny, fair-weather-and- foul friendship for his race; who loves men, not as a philosopher, with philanthropy, nor as an overseer of the poor, with charity, but by a necessity of his nature, as he loves dogs and horses; and standing at his open door from morning till night would fain see more and more of them come along the highway, and is never satiated. To him the sun and moon are but travelers, the one by day and the other by night; and they too patronize his house.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Every wild apple shrub excites our expectation thus, somewhat as every wild child. It is, perhaps, a prince in disguise. What a le...sson to man! So are human beings, referred to the highest standard, the celestial fruit which they suggest and aspire to bear, browsed on by fate; and only the most persistent and strongest genius defends itself and prevails, sends a tender scion upward at last, and drops its perfect fruit on the ungrateful earth. Poets and philosophers and statesmen thus spring up in the country pastures, and outlast the hosts of unoriginal men.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The man who, from the beginning of his life, has been bathed at length in the soft atmosphere of a woman, in the smell of her hand...s, of her bosom, of her knees, of her hair, of her supple and floating clothes, ... has contracted from this contact a tender skin and a distinct accent, a kind of androgyny without which the harshest and most masculine genius remains, as far as perfection in art is concerned, an incomplete being.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... any men who would give up the law-making power to women in order to remedy existing evils, would surely be those most ready to... enact the needful laws themselves.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Young men all of us--we've got to be. You know why? I'll give you two good reasons. We jump out of planes, and guys shoot at us.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
During the fifties, for example, the American character appeared with some consistency that became a model of manhood adopted by m...any men: the Fifties male. He got to work early, labored responsibly, supported his wife and children and admired discipline. Reagan is a sort of mummified version of this dogged type. This sort of man didn't see women's souls well, but he appreciated their bodies; and his view of culture and America's part in it was boyish and optimistic. Many of his qualities were strong and positive, but underneath the charm and bluff there was, and there remains, much isolation, deprivation, and passivity. Unless he has an enemy, he isn't sure that he is alive. The Fifties man was supposed to like football, be aggressive, stick up for the United States, never cry, and always provide.... During the sixties, another sort of man appeared. The waste and violence of the Vietnam war made men question whether they knew what an adult male really was. If manhood meant Vietnam, did they want any part of it? Meanwhile, the feminist movement encouraged men to actually look at women, forcing them to become conscious of concerns and sufferings that the Fifties male labored to avoid.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »