Skip to content

Masculinity is not something given to you, but something you gain. And you gain it by winning small battles with honor. Because there is very little honor left in American life, there is a certain built-in tendency to destroy masculinity in American men.

— Norman Mailer Cannibals and Christians (1966)

Another quote →

Topics

Men

More quotes by Norman Mailer

The final purpose of art is to intensify, even, if necessary, to exacerbate, the moral consciousness of people.

One's condition on marijuana is always existential. One can feel the importance of each moment and how it is changing one.

Interview in Writers at Work Third Series (1967)

We live in a time which has created the art of the absurd. It is our art.

Cannibals and Christians (1966)

The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.

Peter's Quotations : Ideas for Our Time (1977)

Every moment of one's existence one is growing into more or retreating into less. One is always living a little more or dying a little bit.

All Norman Mailer quotes →

You may also like

Ever since I arrived to a state of manhood, I have felt a sincere passion for liberty.

Ethan Allen

Men may rule the world, but women rule the men who rule the world.

Chinweizu Ibekwe Anatomy of Female Power (1990)

This is the porcelain clay of humankind.

John Dryden Don Sebastian (1690)

Conservatives have a problem with women. For that matter, all men do.

Ann Coulter The Cornell Review (1984)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Norman Mailer (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.