Harshness is for the good of a boy, soft-heartedness will ruin him.

To be a tough, rugged boy is every lad’s ambition. But to be a gentleman, to be kindly, charitable, thoughtful as well as tough and rugged is much more to be desired. And he who can be both is much the better man and usually much tougher in the long run.

He had the kind of personality that makes you think a boy will grow up to be a public torturer.

The softer you find your child is, the more you are to seek occasions, at fit times, thus to harden him. The great art in this is, to begin with what is but very little painful, and to proceed by insensible degrees, when you are playing, and in good humour with him, and speaking well of him: and when you have once got him to think himself made amends for his suffering by the praise is given him for his courage; when he can take pride in giving such marks of his manliness, and can prefer the reputation of being brave and stout, to the avoiding a little pain, or the shrinking under it; you need nor despair in time and by the assistance of his growing reason, to master his timorousness, and mend the weakness of his constitution.

I went to a school where it was pretty rough - I'd get my clothes stolen, my cash. And at home life was pretty hard too. I had a difficult childhood, and I'm not saying that that's why I do ultimate fighting, but it helped shape my character.

We teach boys to associate being abused with being loved.

Masculinity is a hard, small cage, and we put boys inside this cage.

Character is not achieved by ease and quiet, it develops through trial and suffering

Hard times define one's character.

Since I was the only girl in the team when I was a kid, it built my character. I was accepted in my team, but not always by the opposing team.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

Boys will be boys. Boys commit mistakes.

"If we say of a boy or a man, "He is of good character," we mean that he does not do a great many things that are wrong, and we also mean that he does do a great many things which imply much effort of will and readiness to face what is disagreeable. He must not steal, he must not be intemperate, he must not be vicious in any way; he must not be mean or brutal; he must not bully the weak. In fact, he must refrain from whatever is evil. But besides refraining from evil, he must do good."

It isn't that you don't like boys.
It's that you only like boys you want to be