"Men are like steel. When they lose their temper, they lose their worth"
About this Quote
The intent feels instructive, almost paternal: anger isn’t framed as understandable or cathartic, but as a downgrade in quality. “Worth” is the key word. He’s not warning that you’ll hurt someone or make a mistake; he’s warning you’ll devalue yourself in the eyes of others and, implicitly, in the marketplace of masculinity. Steel is prized for reliability, tensile strength, consistency. A temper is volatility. The line argues that the moment you become unpredictable, you stop being useful, trusted, employable, admirable. It’s self-control pitched as social currency.
The subtext is also conservative in the old-school sense: emotions are liabilities, public displays are failures of discipline. That’s a tidy fit for Norris’s cultural lane - a performer whose persona has long traded on stoicism, competence, and moral clarity. Coming from an actor associated with invincible competence (and later, meme-level hyper-masculinity), the quote works as a quiet corrective: the strongest man in the room doesn’t need to prove he’s strong by exploding. He proves it by not exploding.
Quote Details
| Topic | Anger |
|---|---|
| Source | Later attribution: Humorous Wit (Djamel Ouis, 2020) modern compilationISBN: 9781782225829 · ID: c7zXDwAAQBAJ
Evidence:
... Men are like steel. When they lose their temper, they lose their worth. Chuck Norris For everybody knows that it requires very little to satisfy the gentlemen, if a woman will only give her mind to it. Margaret Oliphant Behind every ... |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Norris, Chuck. (2026, February 15). Men are like steel. When they lose their temper, they lose their worth. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/men-are-like-steel-when-they-lose-their-temper-52275/
Chicago Style
Norris, Chuck. "Men are like steel. When they lose their temper, they lose their worth." FixQuotes. February 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/men-are-like-steel-when-they-lose-their-temper-52275/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Men are like steel. When they lose their temper, they lose their worth." FixQuotes, 15 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/men-are-like-steel-when-they-lose-their-temper-52275/. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.













