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Masculinity Quotes

Browse 534 quotes about Masculinity.

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Masculinity Quotes

“To take responsibility is painful. It is hard to admit that the reason for your situation is you. Admitting this often fuels shame. And shame is a dirty lover. Shame says, “See - I told you you weren’t good enough. You should feel horrible about this.” And when I embrace shame - an interesting thing happens. I feel bad. And then we are driven to the same wrong behaviors - porn - overeating - drugs - booze - anger - because hey make you feel better - until the shame kicks in. Getting caught in that cycle is destructive.”

ShamePersonal DevelopmentManhoodMasculinityManlihoodPersonal Development For Men
Author:Josh Hatcher
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“You might even ask, 'Who is this guy to be telling me how to live my life?' And my answer is simple. I’m the guy that is figuring it out just like you. I can’t guarantee that I’m ahead of you in the race - but I do feel it’s my responsibility to help people get into the race, and to stay on track in the race. I know I don’t have it all together. I know that I’m not an expert. I know that I’m not perfect. But I can’t sit by and let men live 'lives of quiet desperation.' (To quote Thoreau) Let’s do this together. Take the flint. Take the steel. Strike. And we will reignite our lives together.”

Personal DevelopmentDesperationMasculinityManlihoodPersonal Development For MenThroeau
Author:Josh Hatcher
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“I don’t want to imply that all we need to do is pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. Some of us may be able to do that. Some of us may need some professional help. But all of us will benefit from a long hard evaluating look at our life, and from working to realign our thinking with a sense of purpose. Even those that need professional help, we’re going to need to realign our thoughts, and to take practical steps to reignite the fire in us.”

Personal DevelopmentManhoodMasculinityManlihoodPersonal Development For Men
Author:Josh Hatcher
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“If love lyrics were too mushy, he could sing them and make wised-up fun of the mush, and still, in some part of the self, acknowledge that there was some truth to the words. He could be tender and still be a tough guy. Ruth Etting could sing her weepy torch songs, but for men, whining or self-pity was not allowed; they were forbidden by the male codes of the city. Sinatra slowly found a way to allow tenderness into the performance while remaining manly. When he finally took command of his own career, he perfected the role of the Tender Tough Guy and passed it on to several generations of Americans. Before him, that archetype did not exist in American popular culture. That is one reason why he continues to matter; Frank Sinatra created a new model for American masculinity.”

TendernessMasculinityPopular CultureTough Guy
Book:Why Sinatra Matters
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“When Margaret Thatcher transitioned her speaking voice to a more male register to be listened to by men of the House of Commons, she was not scrutinised in the same way a trans man would be - her voice was mainly praised ... becoming more masculine is always [socially] favoured over perceived femininity.”

MisogynyMasculinityFemininityTransTransitioning
Book:Person-Centred Counselling for Trans and Gender Diverse People: A Practical Guide
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“The Manhandling of Gilbert Gripes by Stewart Stafford Scrummage in a birch wood, Pyrrhic rut for an oval prize, Grinning studs rake my face, A flayed Garryowen as sport. Cauliflower ears throb with fear, Thunderous hooves charging, Poleaxed by a car crash tackle, Nosebleed kiss tickles my lips. The rite of passage staggers on, A butcher's initiation of brothers, Cutthroat razors kindly supplied, Wealthy primates whoop in safety. © Stewart Stafford, 2024. All rights reserved.”

MasculinityRugbyInitiationToxic MasculinityRite Of PassageSadomasochismHomoeroticismRugby UnionSport Sports
Author:Stewart Stafford
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“Like many liberal men in the age of feminism, he believed women should have equal access to jobs and be given equal pay, but when it came to matters of home and heart he still believed caregiving was the female role. Like many men, he wanted a woman to be 'just like his mama' so that he did not have to do the work of growing up.”

FeminismFeministManhoodEmotional IntelligenceMasculinityLiberalMan Child
Book:All About Love: New Visions
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“These are the figures of steel whose eagle eyes dart between whirling propellers to pierce the cloud; who dare the hellish crossing through fields of roaring craters, gripped in the chaos of tank engines ... men relentlessly saturated with the spirit of battle, men whose urgent wanting discharges itself in a single concentrated and determined release of energy. As I watch them noiselessly slicing alleyways into barbed wire, digging steps to storm outward, synchronizing luminous watches, finding the North by the stars, the recognition flashes: this is the new man. The pioneers of storm, the elect of central Europe. A whole new race, intelligent, strong, men of will ... supple predators straining with energy. They will be architects building on the ruined foundations of the world.”

MasculinityWorld War OneStormtroopers
Book:Der Kampf als inneres Erlebnis
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“In an editorial headlined “The King Is Dead,” The New York Times noted, “Even among the hierarchy of great motion-picture stars, of whom there were many in the happy years of his ascendance, he was acknowledged supreme. Perhaps he was not the most skillful and subtle in the way of technique. Perhaps he did not possess the polish of some of the latterly imported British stars. But what Gable had in a measure that no other star quite matched—or projected as ferociously as he did—was a true masculine personality. Whatever the role, Gable was as certain as the sunrise. He was consistently and stubbornly all Man….People everywhere—men, women and small boys—admired Clark Gable. He was a conspicuous symbol of the rugged American throughout the world.”

MasculinityKingEulogyAmericanRugged IndividualismClark Gable
Book:Clark Gable: A Biography
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“At the birthday parties of friends I wait for the moment when someone’s mum clears away what’s left of the Angel Delight and says plaintively, ‘I wish they were all like you, Robert.’ Which is to say, ‘I wish they were all as quiet as you, Robert.’ I’m almost indignant if I don’t get that compliment at some stage. But then, I’m also uneasy, because I know that boys are not supposed to be quiet.”

MasculinityGender RolesAmab
Book:How Not to Be a Boy
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“On weekdays, everyone would read Armistead Maupan's "Tales of the City," published as a novel in 1978. His leading character Michael "Mouse" Toliver, a clone-ish softie himself, laments the experience of meeting men– nice mustache, Levis, a starched khaki army shirt, strong– and trying to resist visiting the bathrooms, lest he encounter the giveaway, the fantasy-killer: face creams and shampoos for days." Mouse was only being wistful, but the underlying efemmophobia was pernicious on the scene. Masculinity can be something that gay men project onto one another, only to snatch it away at the first sign of inauthenticity. That they hadn't rolled out of bed looking ruggedly handsome, but required a beauty routine to get that way.”

DamnMasculinityGay CultureGender PerformanceGender Theory
Book:Gay Bar: Why We Went Out
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“Sweden had paternity-leave policies in place for years but found that few men were taking advantage of the benefit. While women felt comfortable taking time off to be with baby, men worried that they would look less dedicated to their careers if they did the same. So the Swedish government implemented a “use it or lose it” policy, mandating that the country’s thirteen-month parental leave cannot only be used by one parent – the other parent must use at least two months of the leave, or both lose those months entirely. Today 85% of Swedish fathers take paternity leave. The policy has helped redefine notions of masculinity and femininity in the already-egalitarian country.”

MasculinitySwedenEgalitarianismPaternity Leave
Book:Homeward Bound: Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity
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“As both a racketeer and a man who turned a profit, he won a place in his father's heart. Huvat broke open his green books and blew prayers after him. He permitted Seyit to smoke in his presence and to shine up his stiletto and spin the chambers of his revolver. After he had bowed in daily prayer, Huvat offered his salutation each time and implored Allah to multiply the strength and power of his son.”

MasculinityRacketeering
Book:Sevgili Arsız Ölüm
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“Goddamn, so this is what it means to have a leader You despise, the racists said when the president Was black and I’ll be damned if I ain’t saying it too. Is this a mandate for whiteness, virility, sovereignty, Stupidity, an idiot’s threats & gangsta narcissisms threading Every shabby sentence his trumpet constructs?”

HateStupidityNarcissismMasculinityAfrican AmericansBlacksRace RelationsWhitesDonald TrumpBarack Obama
Book:American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin
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“The line between friends and enemies is usually very thin. In a realm where the delicate dance between love and infatuation often blurs and reasoning grapples with the tides of emotion, *a man must become a blacksmith of his own soul.* He Must wield his reasoning as a hammer to forge his emotions, upon the anvil of self-awareness. Each strike of the brain-hammer reverberates with clarity, tempering the heart’s wild impulses, separating the enduring glow of love from the fleeting flicker of infatuation. Sparks of illusion scatter while the tongs of introspection hold the heart steady, ensuring that only genuine emotion is shaped by the steady hand of reason in this crucible of inner truth”

LoveFriendshipSelf AwarenessMental HealthBetrayalEmotional IntelligenceMasculinityInfatuationLion S Heart
Author:Njau Kihia
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“The line between true love and infatuation is usually very thin. In a realm where the delicate dance between the two often blurs and reasoning grapples with the tides of emotion, a man must become a blacksmith of his own soul. He Must wield his reasoning as a hammer to forge his emotions, upon the anvil of self-awareness. Each strike of the brain-hammer reverberates with clarity, tempering the heart’s wild impulses, separating the enduring glow of love from the fleeting flicker of infatuation. Sparks of illusion scatter while the tongs of introspection hold the heart steady, ensuring that only genuine emotion is shaped by the steady hand of reason in this crucible of inner truth”

LoveFriendshipSelf LoveSelf AwarenessBetrayalIntrospectionEmotional IntelligenceMasculinityInfatuationAssertiveness
Author:Njau Kihia
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“But Violet Antrim, who had also been staying with the Peacocks, had arrived home full of importance. She walked in on Stephen one afternoon to announce her engagement to young Alec Peacock. She was so much engaged and so haughty about it that Stephen, whose nerves were already on edge, was very soon literally itching to slap her. Violet was now able to look down on Stephen from the height of her newly gained knowledge of men—knowing Alec she felt that she knew the whole species. 'It's a terrible pity you dress as you do, my dear,' she remarked, with the manner of sixty, 'a young girl's so much more attractive when she's soft—don't you think you could soften your clothes just a little? I mean you do want to get married, don't you! No woman's complete until she is married. After all, no woman can really stand alone, she always needs a man to protect her.' Stephen said: 'I'm all right—getting on nicely, thank you!' 'Oh, no, but you can't be!' Violet insisted. 'I was talking to Alec and Roger about you, and Roger was saying it's an awful mistake for women to get false ideas into their heads. He thinks you've got rather a bee in your bonnet; he told Alec that you'd be quite a womanly woman if you'd only stop trying to ape what you're not.”

MenWomenRelationshipsMarriageGenderMasculinityFemininityGender Relationships
Book:The Well Of Loneliness
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“Masculinity and femininity attract one another, and their attributes are complementary; however this entails more than simply a male being attracted to a female: What actually complements the immature man who runs around, or cheats, or neglects his duties, is the masculine woman because he needs her to lead and to take charge, to take care of him. Immaturity is a state of need, and one of those needs is the need to be kept in check.”

RelationshipsMarriageDatingAttractionMaturityManhoodMasculinityFemininityImmaturityOpposites Attract
Author:Criss Jami
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“No son ever develops into manhood without, in some way, being disloyal to his mother. If he remains with her, to comfort her and console her, then he never gets out of his mother complex. Often a mother will do all she can to keep her son with her. One of the most subtle ways is to encourage him the idea of being loyal to her; but if he gives in to her completely then she often finds herself with a son severely injured in his masculinity. The son must ride off and leave his mother, even if it appears to mean disloyalty, and the mother must bear this pain. Later, like Parsifal, the son may come back to the mother and they may find a new relationship, on a new level; but this can only be done after the son has first achieved his independence and transferred his affection to a woman, either in an interior way with his own inner feminine side or in an exterior way with a real female companion of his own age. In our myth, Parsifal's mother died when he left. Perhaps she represents the kind of woman who can only exist as a mother, who dies when this role is taken from her because she does not understand how to be an individual woman, but only a "mother.”

MenMarriagePsychologyCommitmentMasculinityCarl JungMother Complex
Book:He: Understanding Masculine Psychology
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“In my profession more generally, it's not an exaggeration to say that masculinity is viewed as the root of all evil. If you were to take a literary theory course, you might think it would be about literature, but it's really not. It's about all the various forms of oppression on earth and how we can see them playing out in literary works. And behind all these forms of oppression is a guy.”

IfsThinkingMightWould BeEarthFormGuyCoursesEvilLiteratureBehindsTheoryRootsVariousProfessionOppressionMasculinityExaggerationLiterary WorksLiterary Theory
Author:Jonathan Gottschall
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