From The Little Grey Flannel Book, compiled and annotated by Oline Luinenberg and Stephen Osborne (Arsenal Pulp Press).

ON ANGST, GREY FLANNEL STYLE

A man’s home is his hassle.

—Paul D. Arnold

ON BEHAVING LIKE A MAN

I’m goin’ to stand up for America until somebody shoots me.

—Roy Rogers

ON SEPARATING THE SOMETHING FROM THE SOMETHING OR OTHERS

The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.

—Liberace

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE

Men are always ready to respect anything that bores them.

—Marilyn Monroe

THE CONNUBIAL CONTRADICTION ILLUMINATED

Marriage makes you legally half a person, and what man wants to live with half a person?

—Gloria Steinem

ON THE OLD BINARY EXCLUSION PRINCIPLE

I go for two kinds of men. The kind with muscles and the kind without.

—Mae West

EARLY VENTURE INTO GAMING THEORY

Man is a gaming animal, he must always be trying to get the better of something or other.

—Charles Lamb (1785-1828)

STILL HOLDING 150 YEARS LATER

It is necessary for me to establish a winner image. Therefore, I have to beat somebody.

—Richard Nixon, 1968

YEAH, BUT HE’S PROBABLY DRUNK

Any man who hates small dogs and children can’t be all bad.

—W.C. Fields

ON TRAINING BOYS FOR LIFE

Except for war, there is nothing in the American life, nothing, which trains a boy better for life than football.

—Robert Kennedy

SECOND THOUGHTS ON THE SPORTING LIFE

Is it normal to wake up in the morning in a sweat because you can’t wait to beat another human’s guts out?

—Joe Kapp, former quarterback

ON WHAT ISN'T EASY FOR MERE MAN

Well, it’s hard for a mere man to believe that woman doesn’t have equal rights.

—Dwight Eisenhower

SURE, ERROL, BUT THEN WHO DOESN'T?

I love a man who can best me.

—Errol Flynn

ON SECOND THOUGHT, THOUGH

There is no glory in outstripping donkeys.

—Martial, AD 70

DOES HE SAY "AW SHUCKS" ALL THE TIME?

People are tired of getting screwed by everything and everybody, and in my pictures, I like to play this character who’s not quite all there, who steps down from his truck and scrapes the manure off his boots and who’s always fighting for his dignity. He’s anti-establishment, he’s funny and he’s somebody to cheer for—a hero.

—Burt Reynolds

ON THE INEFFABLE BONDS OF PATERNITY

My father was frightened of his father, I was frightened of my father, and I am damned well going to see to it that my children are frightened of me.

—King George V