Men will not look at things as they really are, but as they wish them to be - and are ruined

If men had all they wished, they would be often ruined.

Men ruin themselves headlong for unworthy women.

Some men see things as they are, and say, why; I dream things as they never were, and say, why not.

All men that are ruined, are ruined on the side of their natural propensities.

Some men see things as they are and say why — I dream things that never were and say why not.

Men under stress are fools, and fool themselves.

Three things destroy a man: considering his own deeds to be really great, forgetting the sins that have been committed, considering his own opinion to be the highest.

Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not.

The greater part of all the mischief in the world arises from the fact that men do not sufficiently understand their own aims.

Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable.

We men are wretched things.

But to manipulate men, to propel them towards goals which you — the social reformer — see, but they may not, is to deny their human essence, to treat them as objects without wills of their own, and therefore to degrade them.

Men lie, and they lie to theirselves worst of all.