The common man, no matter how sharp and tough, actually enjoys having the wool pulled over his eyes, and makes it easier for the puller. — P. T. Barnum
The philosophy of the common man is an old wife that gives him no pleasure, yet he cannot live without her, and resents any aspersions that strangers may cast on her character. — George Santayana
You can't be common, the common man goes nowhere; you have to be uncommon — Herb Brooks
A common man marvels at uncommon things. A wise man marvels at the commonplace. — Confucius
All men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one Workman; and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince. — Plato
The average man is a conformist, accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain. — Colin Wilson
Common sense is the most widely shared commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it. — Rene Descartes
Every man is the creature of the age in which he lives; very few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time. — Voltaire
the average man does not want to be free. he simply wants to be safe. — H. L. Mencken
Greatness is always built on this foundation: the ability to appear, speak and act, as the most common man. — Hafez
The upward course of a nation's history is due in the long run to the soundness of heart of its average men and women — Queen Elizabeth II
All men are ordinary men; the extraordinary men are those who know it. — Gilbert K. Chesterton
Men are seldom more commonplace than on supreme occasions. — Samuel Butler
The middle class male thinks he has a monopoly on objectivity. — Grayson Perry
Short Common Man Quotes
Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
The mass of mankind are evidently slavish in their tastes, preferring a life suitable to beasts. — Aristotle
That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest. — Henry David Thoreau
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. — Henry David Thoreau
The artist is not a special kind of man, but every man is a special kind of artist. — Ananda Coomaraswamy
Top 10 Common Man Quotes
God is not looking for men of great faith, He is looking for common men to trust His great faithfulness. — Hudson Taylor
If one is determined to die for the truth, even a common man can create history. — Velupillai Prabhakaran
Woman is born free and lives equal to man in her rights. Social distinctions can be based only on the common utility. — Olympe de Gouges
This country [the Philippines] is like a pyramid, like a tower. It is made up of millions of stones... . And the foundation stone of this pyramid is the common man. — Ramon Magsaysay
The best perfection of a religious man is to do common things in a perfect manner. A constant fidelity in small things is a great and heroic virtue. — Bonaventure
Down these mean streets a man must go who is neither tarnished nor afraid — Raymond Chandler
For I have dipped my hands in muddied waters, and, withdrawing them, find 'tis better to be a commander than a common man! — Bartholomew Roberts
If you really want to judge the character of a man, look not at his great performances. Watch a man do his most common actions. — Swami Vivekananda
The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of the common man. — Baron William Henry Beveridge
I felt the comics grew because they became the common man's literature, the common man's art, the common man's publishing. — Jack Kirby
Do not correct a fool or he will hate you. Correct a wise man and he will appreciate you.
Power Of Common Man Quotes
To this war of every man against every man, this also in consequent; that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice have there no place. Where there is no common power, there is no law, where no law, no injustice. Force, and fraud, are in war the cardinal virtues. — Thomas Hobbes
Freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that society and made by the legislative power vested in it and not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, arbitrary will of another man. — John Locke
Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection. — Henry A. Wallace
Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.
What has commonly been called rebellion has more often been nothing but a manly and glorious struggle in opposition to the lawless power of rebellious kings and princes. — Samuel Adams
During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called war; and such a war, as if of every man, against every man. — Thomas Hobbes
Thou has left behind Powers that will work for thee,-air, earth, and skies! There 's not a breathing of the common wind That will forget thee; thou hast great allies; Thy friends are exultations, agonies, And love, and man's unconquerable mind. — William Wordsworth
The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute. The man who does not ask, is a fool for life.
Anger is an affected madness, compounded of pride and folly, and an intention to do commonly more mischief than it can bring to pass; and, without doubt, of all passions which actually disturb the mind of man, it is most in our power to extinguish, at least, to suppress and correct, our anger. — Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon
You shall not pile, with servile toil, Your monuments upon my breast, Nor yet within the common soil Lay down the wreck of power to rest, Where man can boast that he has trod On him that was "the scourge of God." — Edward Everett Hale
Rebellion, in man, is the refusal to be treated as an object and to be reduced to simple historical terms. It is the affirmation of a nature common to all men, which eludes the world of power. — Albert Camus
Life is always uncertain, and common prudence dictates to every man the necessity of settling his temporal concerns, while it is in his power, and while the mind is calm and undisturbed. — George Washington
Common Man Life Quotes
Country music to me is heartfelt music that speaks to the common man. It is about real life stories with rather simple melodies that the average person can follow. Country music should speak directly and simply about the highs and lows of life. Something that anyone can relate to. — George Jones
Food that is necessary for man’s existence is as sacred as life itself. Everything that is indispensable for its preservation is the common property of society as a whole. It is only the surplus that is private property and can be safely left to individual commercial enterprise. — Maximilien Robespierre
When we consider what, to use the words of the catechism, is the chief end of man, and what are the true necessaries and means of life, it appears as if men had deliberately chosen the common mode of living because they preferred it to any other. Yet they honestly think there is no choice left. — Henry David Thoreau
Circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him.
Common men talk bagfuls of religion but do not practise even a grain of it. The wise man speaks a little, even though his whole life is religion expressed in action. — Ramakrishna
I gave my decisions on the principles of common justice and honesty between man and man, and relied on natural born sense, and not on law, learning to guide me; for I had never read a page in a law book in all my life. — Davy Crockett
Often in this our life do we begin by cursing men and end by loving them. A sense of the common fallibility of all flesh makes us kin. No man is lovable who is invincible. — Neville Cardus
A wise man never knows all, only fools know everything.
Man is subject to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of humanity, and yet, as if nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another. — Joseph Addison
Things like the financial markets - a proper grounding in mathematics could help the common man. I believe that if people are more familiar with mathematical concepts... it can help deal with modern life, which is increasingly complex. — Viswanathan Anand
A silent man is easily reputed wise. A man who suffers none to see him in the common jostle and undress of life, easily gathers round him a mysterious veil of unknown sanctity, and men honor him for a saint. The unknown is always wonderful. — Frederick William Robertson
The whole man is involved, the mind, the heart and the will, and a common cause of spiritual depression is the failure to realize that the Christian life is a whole life, a balanced life. — Martyn Lloyd-Jones
The Notebook Quotes
The Notebook ... that’s my favorite one. I’ve read that book 30 times. It gives a true depiction of two people that are in love. — Kevin Gates
Love is like the wind, you can't see it but you can feel it. — Nicholas Sparks
In times of grief and sorrow I will hold you and rock you, and take your grief and make it my own. When you cry, I cry, and when you hurt, I hurt. And together we will try to hold back the floods to tears and despair and make it through the potholed street of life. — Nicholas Sparks
The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they dont have any.
The scariest thing about distance is that you don’t know whether they’ll miss you or forget you. — Nicholas Sparks
To lose a passport was the least of one’s worries. To lose a notebook was a catastrophe. — Bruce Chatwin
It's the possibility that keeps me going, not the guarantee. — Nicholas Sparks
The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise man grows it under his feet.
Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever. — Will Self
Very few people really care about freedom, about liberty, about the truth, very few. Very few people have guts, the kind of guts on which a real democracy has to depend. Without people with that sort of guts a free society dies or cannot be born. — Doris Lessing
And the idea of just wandering off to a cafe with a notebook and writing and seeing where that takes me for awhile is just bliss. — J. K. Rowling
True love is rare, and it's the only thing that gives life real meaning. — Nicholas Sparks
Common Folk Quotes
That proves you are unusual,' returned the Scarecrow; 'and I am convinced that the only people worthy of consideration in this world are the unusual ones. For the common folks are like the leaves of a tree, and live and die unnoticed. — L. Frank Baum
When the leaders speak of peace
The common folk know
That war is coming
When the leaders curse war
The mobilization order is already written out. Every day, to earn my daily bread
I go to the market where lies are bought
Hopefully
I take up my place among the sellers.
— Bertolt Brecht
Let us beware of common folk, of common sense, of sentiment, of inspiration, and of the obvious. — Charles Baudelaire
Words of comfort skillfully administered are the oldest therapy known to man.
Folk music isn't owned by anybody. It is owned by everybody, like the national parks, the postal system, and the school system. It's our common property. There is nobody's name on it. Nobody can make money on it. It's not copywritten. — Utah Phillips
I would say there's a lot of similarity between folk and punk. It's written for the common man. — Greg Graffin
The guard rails on a highway may restrict some folks from driving the way they want, but those rules mostly end up saving the lives of those other drivers who understand that living in a society means behaving in a commonly beneficial way. — Steven Weber
No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.
The most popular man under a democracy is not the most democratic man, but the most despotic man. The common folk delight in the exactions of such a man. They like him to boss them. Their natural gait is the goose step. — H. L. Mencken
Common folk didn't have last names in the 8th and 9th centuries. — Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
When the leaders speak of peace, the common folk know war is coming. — Bertolt Brecht
The people people have for friends
Your common sense appall
But the people people marry
Are the queerest folk of all. — Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Ordinary Man Quotes
The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse. — Carlos Castaneda
The years go by one after the other; time slips past us with out our being aware of it; we grow old like ordinary men and we shall end like them. — Louis XIV
There aren't any great men. There are just great challenges that ordinary men like you and me are forced by circumstances to meet. — William Halsey
A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart. — Mencius
Relish the challenge of overcoming difficulties that would crush ordinary men...learn to suffer. — Mark Twight
The highest point at which human life and art meet is in the ordinary. To look down on the ordinary is to despise what you can't have. Show me a man who fears being ordinary, and I'll show you a man who is not yet a man. — Yukio Mishima
A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Genius... is the capacity to see ten things where the ordinary man sees one. — Ezra Pound
The difference between a great soul and an ordinary man is this: the latter weeps while leaving this body, whereas the former laughs. Death seems to him a mere play. — Sarada Devi
Common Life Quotes
In every physical action, unless it is purely mechanical, there is concealed some inner action, some feelings. This is how the two levels of life in a part are created, the inner and the outer. They are intertwined. A common purpose brings them together and reinforces the unbreakable bond. — Constantin Stanislavski
The happiness promised us in Christ does not consist in outward advantages-such as leading a joyous and peaceful life, having rich possessions, being safe from all harm, and abounding with delights such as the flesh commonly longs after. No, our happiness belongs to the heavenly life! — John Calvin
It became easy for me to detach myself from the course of life, so that while my hands and mind were engaged in the common affairs of every day, my spirit maintained its attitude of communion with God. — John G. Lake
Every man dies. Not every man really lives.
The future of life on Earth depends on our ability to see the sacred where others see only the common — John Denver
Music is one of the closest link-ups with God that we can probably experience. I think it's a common vibrating tone of the musical notes that holds all life together. — Marvin Gaye
Fear and faith have something in common. They both ask us to believe in something we cannot see. — Joel Osteen
There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them. — Anthony De Mello
Life gives to all the choice. You can satisfy yourself with mediocrity if you wish. You can be common, ordinary, dull, colorless, or yyou can channel your life so that it will be clean, vibrant, useful, progressive, colorful, and rich. — Spencer W. Kimball
It is impossible to escape the impression that people commonly use false standards of measurement -- that they seek power, success and wealth for themselves and admire them in others, and that they underestimate what is of true value in life. — Sigmund Freud
When brothers agree, no fortress is so strong as their common life. — Antisthenes
Average Man Quotes
The average woman would rather have beauty than brains, because the average man can see better than he can think. — Mark Twain
To be a warrior is not a simple matter of wishing to be one. It is rather an endless struggle that will go on to the very last moment of our lives. Nobody is born a warrior, in exactly the same way that nobody is born an average man. We make ourselves into one or the other. — Carlos Castaneda
The average man can't prove most of the things that he chooses to speak of, and still won't research and find out the root of the truth that you seek of — Damian Marley
The hardest struggle of all is to be something different from what the average man is. — Charles M. Schwab
The hardest struggle of all is to be something different from what the average man is. — Robert H. Schuller
Marriage is about the most expensive way for the average man to get laundry done. — Burt Reynolds
The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus. — Bruce Lee
A women can make an average man great, and a great man average. — Robert Burns
Four years of football are calculated to breed in the average man more of the ingredients of success in life than almost any academic course he takes. — Knute Rockne
There are people who tell you to shut up because you're just a celebrity, but pundits, talking heads, they're every bit the celebrity and a lot of them aren't any more qualified than the average man on the street. — Kevin Bacon
Commonplace Quotes
God never intended His people to be ordinary or commonplace. His intentions were that they should be on fire for Him, conscious of His divine power, realizing the glory of the cross that foreshadows the crown. — Smith Wigglesworth
the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars. — Jack Kerouac
...The final secret is that there is no secret. Devote yourself to your leader. Work hard. Be grateful. Act boldly. Some may deride such suggestions as commonplace, and they'd be right: They are common. But to see them successfully enacted in this world is rare indeed. — Toyotomi Hideyoshi
It's possible, in a poem or short story, to write about commonplace things and objects using commonplace but precise language, and to endow those things—a chair, a window curtain, a fork, a stone, a woman's earring—with immense, even startling power. — Raymond Carver
The truth of Zen, just a little bit of it, is what turns one's humdrum life, a life of monotonous, uninspiring commonplaceness, into one of art, full of genuine inner creativity. — D.T. Suzuki
Making the simple complicated is commonplace, Charles Mingus once said. Making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity. — Rick Rubin
We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a Power the Twentieth Century does not reckon with.... Oh that God would make us dangerous! — Jim Elliot
The concern is over what will happen as strong encryption becomes commonplace with all digital communications and stored data. Right now the use of encryption isn't all that widespread, but that state of affairs is expected to change rapidly. — Dorothy Denning
The concern is over what will happen as strong encryption becomes commonplace with all digital communications and stored data. Right now the use of encryption isn't all that widespread, but that state of affairs is expected to change rapidly. — Dorothy E. Denning
In the history of the human race, those periods which later appeared as great have been the periods when the men and the women belonging to them had transcended the differences that divided them and had recognized in their membership in the human race a common bond. — Haile Selassie
When the bell tolls three times, it will announce that I have been killed. If I am killed by common men, you and your children will rule Russia for centuries to come; if I am killed by one of your stock, you and your family will be killed by the Russian people! Pray Tsar of Russia. Pray. — Grigori Rasputin
The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of bold projects and new ideas. Rather, it will belong to those who can blend passion, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the great enterprises and ideals of American society. — Robert Kennedy
A common misperception of me is... that I am a tough, rough northerner, which I suppose I am really. But I'm pretty mild-mannered most of the time. It's the parts that you play I guess. I don't mind it. I'm not a tough guy. I'd like to act as a fair, easy-going, kind man at some point. — Sean Bean
In walking through the world there is a choice for a man to make. He can choose the fair and open path, the path which sound ethics, sound democracy, and the common law prescribe, or choose the secret way by which he can get the better of his fellow man. — Ida Tarbell
Sometimes it's strange being me. I travel the world meeting people, I'm surrounded with friends and my life is full, but all the time I am confronted by a young man I have nothing in common with. He is me, but he is not me now. In fact I have been me now for longer than I was him, but no one wants to know about me. — Eddy Merckx
When a man says that he is Jesus or Napoleon, or that the Martians are after him, or claims something else that seems outrageous to common sense, he is labeled psychotic and locked up in a madhouse. Freedom of speech is only for normal people. — Thomas Szasz
What will happen once the authentic mass man takes over, we do not know yet, although it may be a fair guess that he will have more in common with the meticulous, calculated correctness of Himmler than with the hysterical fanaticism of Hitler, will more resemble the stubborn dullness of Molotov than the sensual vindictive cruelty of Stalin. — Hannah Arendt
The better part of the man is soon ploughed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool's life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before. — Henry David Thoreau
The common enemy of humanity is man. In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. ...The real enemy then is humanity itself. — Aurelio Peccei
If slavery be a sin, it is not yours. It does not rest on your action for its origin, on your consent for its existence. It is a common law right to property in the service of man; its origin was Divine decree. — Jefferson Davis
For Star Trek proves, as faulty as individual episodes could be, is that the much-maligned common man and common woman has an enormous hunger for brotherhood. They are ready for the twenty-third century now, and they are light-years ahead of their petty governments and their visionless leaders. — Gene Roddenberry
It is my right to be uncommon. For I do not choose to be a common man, If I can, I seek opportunity. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the government look after me. I choose to take the calculated risk, to dream, to build, to fail or succeed. I choose not to barter incentive for a dole, I prefer the challenges of life to a guaranteed existence, the thrill of fulfillment to the state calm of Utopia. I will not trade my freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. — Unknown
I've concluded that genius is as common as dirt. We suppress genius because we haven't yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women. The solution, I think, is simple and glorious. Let them manage themselves. — John Taylor Gatto
Although teachers do care and do work very, very hard, the institution is psychopathic-it has no conscience. It rings a bell and the young man in the middle of writing a poem must close his notebook and move to a different cell where he must memorize that humans and monkeys derive from a common ancestor. — John Taylor Gatto
In times of uncertainty there is a special breed of warrior ready to answer our Nation’s call; a common man with uncommon desire to succeed. Forged by adversity, he stands alongside America’s finest special operations forces to serve his country and the American people, and to protect their way of life. I am that man. — Marcus Luttrell
America's abundance was not created by public sacrifices to the common good, but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. — Ayn Rand
But if the life will not be easy, it will be rich and satisfying. For every young American who participates in the Peace Corps-who works in a foreign land-will know that he or she is sharing in the great common task of bringing to man that decent way of life which is the foundation of freedom and a condition of peace. — John F. Kennedy
My father always taught by telling stories about his experiences. His lessons were about morality and art and what insects and birds and human beings had in common. He told me what it meant to be a man and to be a Black man. He taught me about love and responsibility, about beauty, and how to make gumbo. — Walter Mosley
All greatness of character is dependent on individuality. The man who has no other existence than that which he partakes in common with all around him, will never have any other than an existence of mediocrity. — James F. Cooper
Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue. — Chester W. Nimitz
Nothing appeals to intellectuals more than the feeling that they represent 'the people'. Nothing, as a rule, is further from the truth — Paul Johnson
I was an artist, but not a self-proclaimed great artist, just a common man who was working in a form of art which is universal. — Jack Kirby
It is unfortunately very true that, without leisure and money, love can be no more than an orgy of the common man. Instead of being a sudden impulse full of ardor and reverie, it becomes a distastefully utilitarian affair. — Charles Baudelaire
What keeps the world from reverting to the Neanderthal with each generation is the continuing, ongoing mythos... the huge body of common knowledge that unites our minds as cells are united in the body of man. — Robert M. Pirsig
Pornography is pornography, what is there to see? Movies are attempting to destroy something that's supposed to be the most beautiful thing a man and a woman can have by making it cheap and common. It's what you don't see that's attractive. — Nancy Reagan
While we try to amass wealth, make piles of money, get hold of the land as our real property, overtop one another in riches, we have palpably cast off justice, and lost the common good. I should like to know how any man can be just, who is deliberately aiming to get out of someone else what he wants for himself. — Saint Basil
In Conclusion
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