It so happened that, a few weeks later, "Old Ernie" [Ernest Hemingway] himself was using my room in New York as a hide-out from li...terary columnists and reporters during one of his rare stopover visits between Africa and Key West. On such all-too-rare occasions he lends an air of virility to my dainty apartment which I miss sorely after he has gone and all the furniture has been repaired.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Whether he admits it or not, a man has been brought up to look at money as a sign of his virility, a symbol of his power, a bigger... phallic symbol than a Porsche.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If the devil were to offer me a resurgence of what is commonly called virility, I'd decline. "Just keep my liver and lungs in good... working order," I'd reply, "so I can go on drinking and smoking!"LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I claim ... that there is a feminine as well as a masculine side to truth ...That as the man is more noble in reason, so the woman... is more quick in sympathy. That as he is indefatigable in pursuit of abstract truth, so is she in caring for the interests by the way--striving tenderly and lovingly that not one of the least of these "little ones" should perish. That while we not unfrequently see women who reason, we say, with the coolness and precision of a man, and men as considerate of helplessness as a woman, still there is a general consensus of mankind that the one trait is essentially masculine and the other as peculiarly feminine. That both are needed to be worked into the training of children, in order that our boys may supplement their virility by tenderness and sensibility, and our girls may round out their gentleness by strength and self-reliance. That, as both are alike necessary in giving symmetry to the individual, so a nation or a race will degenerate into mere emotionalism on the one hand, or ballism on the other, if dominated by either exclusively; lastly, and most emphatically, that the feminine factor can have its proper effect only through woman's development and education so that she may fitly and intelligently stamp her force on the forces of her day, and add her modicum to the riches of the world's thought.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is difficult to compare Chaplin's and Keaton's gifts. Chaplin's fertile period lasted 38 years (some say even longer); Keaton's... lasted about ten. Chaplin's art depended upon a minute perfection and precision; Keaton's relied on speed and a tumult of imaginative, farfetched ideas. Although Chaplin the director was more an intellect than Keaton the director, Charlie the character was less an intellect than Buster the character. Although women were important metaphorically in Chaplin's films, sexual attraction and masculine virility were far more dominant in Keaton's pictures. The Chaplin films were smaller--centering on small facial gestures and objects; the Keaton films were larger--centering on human figures against a vast physical environment and huge, complicated objects. The Chaplin films moved slowly and quietly; the Keaton films with great pace and vigor. And yet Charlie was the character who laughed, smiled, and cried, whereas Buster was the one who rarely moved a facial muscle.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
One reason--perhaps the chief--of the virility of the Roosevelts is [their] very democratic spirit. They have never felt that beca...use they were born in a good position they could put their hands in their pockets and succeed. They have felt, rather, that being born in a good position, there is no excuse for them if they did not do their duty by the community.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The Americanistic pitch, of course, was old hat on the Bible circuit, as were subterranean virility fears common, the latter alway...s animating the former in the extra-defensive and recurrent dream of the evangelist in which he sees himself, in full color and cinemascope, a lantern-jawed begrenaded U.S. Marine leaping out of a trench to beat the living shit out of the Devil who, widespread was the assumption, wore perfume, spoke Russian, and carried a purse.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In England and America a beard usually means that its owner would rather be considered venerable than virile; on the continent of ...Europe it often means that its owner makes a special claim to virility.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »