Quote

You can tell a lot about what a man lacks by watching what he is cynical about, and many of us are cynical about love.

Merle Shain

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Merle Shain
Age: 53 †
Born: 1935
Born: January 1
Died: 1989
Died: January 1
Author
Journalist
City of Toronto
Love
Lacks
Cynicism
Cynical
Watching
Tell
Many
Men

More quotes by Merle Shain

Image
It takes a lot of mulch, love does, to create a froth.
Merle Shain
Image
It takes great generosity to accept generosity.
Merle Shain
Image
Loving can cost a lot but not loving always costs more, and those who fear to love often find that want of love is an emptiness that robs the joy from life.
Merle Shain
Image
Our strength is in our dreams, and those who do not dare to dream damn themselves.
Merle Shain
Image
But who would rush at a benighted man, and give him two black eyes for being blind?
Merle Shain
Image
There are really only two ways to approach life - as victim or as gallant fighter - and you must decide if you want to act or react, deal your own cards or play with a stacked deck. And if you don't decide which way to play with life, it always plays with you.
Merle Shain
Image
If there are no endings, there are no beginnings and you see no new lands, so for everything that's lost, there is usually something gained.
Merle Shain
Image
The job of a friend is not to decide what should be done, not to run interference or pick up the slack. The job of a friend is to understand, and to supply energy and hope, and in doing so to keep those they value on their feet a little longer, so that they can fight another round and grow strong in themselves.
Merle Shain
Image
Sex deepens love and love deepens sex, so physical intimacy transforms everything and playing with it is playing with fire.
Merle Shain
Image
The romantic myth is so strong that it survives the wear and tear of marriage by simply detaching from it and floating up on ahead, and women who are rather fond of the men they married, as well as ones who are not, go through life with a bag packed for the day when the shining knight on a white charger arrives, just in case he does.
Merle Shain
Image
The conflict between what one is and who one is expected to be touches all of us. And sometimes, rather than reach for what one could be, we choose the comfort of the failed role, preferring to be the victim of circumstance, the person who didn't have a chance.
Merle Shain
Image
Loving can cost a lot but not loving always cost more.
Merle Shain
Image
It can be much harder to be on the receiving end of a transaction than to be the one who gets to give. In fact, being given to can mean being taken from. There is a very strong connection between pride and giving, and those who do the giving get to feel that they are worthy, while those who are given to often feel that they are not.
Merle Shain
Image
There are no perfect men of course, but some are more perfect than others, and we can use all of those we can get.
Merle Shain
Image
One can never change the past, only the hold it has on you.
Merle Shain
Image
There are many pages in the book, many kinds of lives we each can live, many ways to be rich, and even more to be poor.
Merle Shain
Image
when you put something good into the world, something good comes back to you.
Merle Shain
Image
Love is short, forgetting is long, and understanding longer still.
Merle Shain
Image
you have to be very careful when you give to others that you don't tell them how great you are rather than how much you value them.
Merle Shain
Image
Compassion is the thing that leads you gently back to yourself.
Merle Shain