James Fox Quotes

Growing up, we tend to challenge each other. We've got to be the toughest, the strongest, the bravest men that we can be. And for many of us, myself included, our identities are wrapped up in whether or not at the end of the day we feel like we're man enough.

Sometimes guys need to cry. Some hockey players think they're too tough to cry.

Think about a guy like Bob Mitchum, with his kind of chest gut not defining itself one way or the other. Was there anybody tougher? Lee Marvin was a marine sniper during the Second World War. They had this sense of themselves, and they had this product of being a man in a masculine way.

I'm not trying to be macho, I promise you.

When you are no longer a boy, you have to be tough.

Black men struggle with masculinity so much. The idea that we must always be strong really presses us all down - it keeps us from growing.

Real men are sadly lacking in this world, for when they are put to the test they prove worthless.

R is for wussies if you're talking about blood and guts.

I challenge you [other men] to see if you can use the same qualities that you feel make you a man to go deeper into yourself. Your strength, your bravery, your toughness: Can we redefine what those mean and use them to explore our hearts? Are you brave enough to be vulnerable? To reach out to another man when you need help? To dive headfirst into your shame? Are you strong enough to be sensitive, to cry whether you are hurting or you're happy, even if it makes you look weak? Are you confident enough to listen to the women in your life? To hear their ideas and their solutions? To hold their anguish and actually believe them, even if what they're saying is against you? And will you be man enough to stand up to other men when you hear "locker room talk," when you hear stories of sexual harassment? When you hear your boys talking about grabbing ass or getting her drunk, will you actually stand up and do something so that one day we don't have to live in a world where a woman has to risk everything and come forward to say the words "me too?"

I used to play softball every summer back in Quitman. My two brothers demanded I be tough. There were certain girls they wouldn't let me invite over because they were too feminine and fragile.

I like guys who, no matter what, are men.

Tough guys have to be tough. But tough guys don't have to be guys.

I have no memory of feeling strong and rugged at any point. I've been considering masculinity my whole life.

Our media provides a continuing message that for men, heroism is defined through association with control, independence, and the ability to commit violence, from superheroes to crime dramas.

People will get to see I'm real and a straight guy. And they'll realise I can fight as well.

If you're a man, you don't cry about it, you take life, the ups and downs; if you're a real man you never go down, you just stay up!

If a boy is not trained to endure and to bear trouble, he will grow up a girl; and a boy that is a girl has all a girl's weakness without any of her regal qualities. A woman made out of a woman is God's noblest work; a woman made out of a man is His meanest.

To be a survivor as an African American man - maybe any man - you have to be pretty tough. Or at least that's what we all understand.

I would want my son to value himself as a person. To hold himself to a higher standard, and to not listen to all the stuff that's shoved down men's throats about what they're supposed to do and how they're not supposed to feel. I want him to know that he's a person and he's allowed to have emotions and be vulnerable. That doesn't mean he's not strong.

People need trouble - a little frustration to sharpen the spirit on, toughen it. Artists do; I don't mean you need to live in a rat hole or gutter, but you have to learn fortitude, endurance. Only vegetables are happy.

Couldn't Lissa have healed that black eye away?" "Its a badge of honor. Makes me seem manly.

I earned that the strong will always beat the weak, but the smart will beat the strong. Boxing is a tough guy sport. But in the end, the tough guy gets to clean the streets and be a bodyguard. In the ring, the tough guy is going to get hurt; at the end of the day, he's going to talk funny. Only the smartest win. So, I know it's cliché, but power - real power - comes from knowledge, comes from smarts.

I love the old way best, the simple way of poison, where we too are strong as men.

If you are a strong man, very good! But do not curse others who are not strong enough for you. ...Everyone says, "Woe unto you people!!" Who says, "Woe unto me that I cannot help you?" The people are doing all right to the best of their ability and means and knowledge. Woe unto me that I cannot lift them to where I am!

Men had taken greater blows: that was what made a man a man. For did they not say that a man is like a funeral ram which must take whatever beating comes to it without opening its mouth; that the silent tremor of pain down its body alone must tell of its suffering?