Charles Bukowski Quotes

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

The brave man, indeed, calls himself lord of the land, through his iron, through his blood.

War paralyzes your courage and deadens the spirit of true manhood.

Military glory—the attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood.

If there was no war, the young men felt that they were denied manhood.

Our valiant legionnaires and Regulares have shown what it is to be a man to the reds and their women who have finally known real men and not militiamen.

We did not win the war with prayers, but with the blood of our soldiers..

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.

I was never a weapons person, you're a coward if you have to walk with a weapon, be a man and fight.

Any man who is a man may not, in honor, submit to threats or violence. But many men who are not cowards are simply unprepared for the fact of human savagery.

We admire predators - panthers, lions, tigers, even wolves. Maybe to be naturally thoughtful and hesitant to use violence is to be somehow second rate. To be in the middle of the social food chain. Especially if you're a man. This society thinks real men are violent.

I verily believe that a man's way with women is in inverse ratio to his prowess among men. The weakling and the saphead have often great ability to charm the fair sex, while the fighting man who can face a thousand real dangers unafraid, sits hiding in the shadows like some frightened child.

We despise and abhor the bully, the brawler, the oppressor, whether in private or public life, but we despise no less the coward and the voluptuary. No man is worth calling a man who will not fight rather than submit to infamy or see those that are dear to him suffer wrong.

Women encourage killers. They do it by falling in love with warriors and heroes. Men know it and respond with enthusiasm. The Crusaders marched off to war with ladies favors in their helmets. The heroes sliced up adults and baked infants on spits, all the while thinking of how the damsels back home would admire their bravery.

It takes a Real man to fill my shoes.

Why not be a man and fight like a man.

...if fifty bands of men surrounded us/ and every sword sang for your blood,/ you could make off still with their cows and sheep.

Strength and manliness are virtue; weakness and cowardice are sin.

A real man will never let his fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty to his country, and his innate manhood.

All men are timid on entering any fight. Whether it is the first or the last fight, all of us are timid. Cowards are those who let their timidity get the better of their manhood.

Don't you know that boys don't cry?' Adam grinned. 'Shall I tell you something I've only recently discovered,' I replied, not attempting to hide the tears rolling down my face and not the least bit ashamed of them. 'Boys don't cry, but real men do.

My old man says when it's time to be counted, the important thing is to be man enough to stand up.

I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.

I'm a guy so I equate vulnerability with fear.

Men are brave enough to go to war, but they are not brave enough to get a bikini wax.