#manhood-and-honor — Public Fediverse posts

Words and actions

An able man shows his spirit by gentle words and resolute actions.

~ Chesterfield

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A man of thought

Think like a man of action. Act like a man of thought.

~ Henri Bergson

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The myth of the bloodless calling

I don’t care how much you say you love your work. If your vision is bold enough, there will soon be a point where your passion is used up before the work ends. Enjoyment does not carry you far enough when you are sailing epic waters.

~ Bryan Ward

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Stop hoarding your best

Creative hoarding is different than other kinds of hoarding. You’re not withholding your treasure from others, you’re withholding it from yourself. You are denying yourself permission to take the best of what you have, here and now, and make it manifest in the world.

~ Bryan Ward

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How the hammer fails you

Wherever your life has locked you in, wherever force has failed you, put down the hammer: pick up the crowbar.

~ Bryan Ward

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1 “realistic” belief

This growing discontent is a warning: a message to stop dissipating your powers in low-level problem solving, to lift your aim and seek better, higher-order problems: ones more lucrative, more alluring… ones better suited to your highest gifts.

~ Bryan Ward

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Three things define you

Three things define you:

1. Your patience when you have nothing.
2. Your attitude when you have everything.
3. …and who you help whenever you are able.

~ unknown

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Always a Child

He who knows only his own generation remains always a child.

~ Cicero

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None of my business

My philosophy is: It’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. …and it makes life so much easier.

~ Anthony Hopkins

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Childhood narcissism

Manhood is the defeat of childhood narcissism.

~ David Gilmore

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Stoop to help

No man stands so tall as when he stoops to help a child.

~ Abraham Lincoln

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Be one

Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.

~ Marcus Aurelius

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Responsible

To be a man is, precisely, to be responsible.

~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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Habitual acts

The strength of a man’s virtue should not be measured by his special exertions but by his habitual acts.

~ Blaise Pascal

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Have a code

A man’s got to have a code, a creed to live by, no matter his job.

~ John Wayne

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Tendency to destroy masculinity

Because there is very little honor left in American life, there is a certain built-in tendency to destroy masculinity in American men.

~ Norman Mailer

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Most enviable of all titles

I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.

~ George Washington

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Nobody can give you freedom

Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you’re a man, you take it.

~ Malcolm X

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Virtuous. Wise. Bold.

The way of a superior man is three-fold: Virtuous, he is free from anxieties; Wise, he is free from perplexities; Bold, he is free from fear.

~ Confucius

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Ready servant of his mind

A man is one whose body has been trained to be the ready servant of his mind; Whose passions are trained to be the servants of his will; Who enjoys the beautiful, loves truth, hates wrong, loves to do good, and respects others as himself.

~ John Ruskin

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Two questions

There are two questions a man must ask himself: The first is, “Where am I going?” and the second is, “Who will go with me?” If you ever get these questions in the wrong order you are in trouble.

~ Sam Keen

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Victorious effort

We do not admire the man of timid peace. We admire the man who embodies victorious effort; the man who never wrongs his neighbor, who is prompt to help a friend, but who has those virile qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life.

~ Theodore Roosevelt

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No inconvenience whatever

I have perused your piece, and find it to be scurrilous and defamatory. To determine whether I should publish it or not, I went home in the evening, purchased a two penny loaf at the baker’s, and with water from the pump made my supper; I then wrapped myself up in my great coat, and laid down on the floor and slept till morning, when, on another loaf and a mug of water, I made my breakfast. From this regimen I feel no inconvenience whatever. Finding I can live in this manner, I have formed a determination never to prostitute my press to the purposes of corruption, and abuse of this kind, for the sake of gaining a more comfortable subsistence.

~ Benjamin Franklin

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Personal independence is a virtue

The lesson taught at this point by human experience is simply this, that the man who will get up will be helped up; and the man who will not get up will be allowed to stay down. Personal independence is a virtue and it is the soul out of which comes the sturdiest manhood. But there can be no independence without a large share of self-dependence, and this virtue cannot be bestowed. It must be developed from within.

~ Frederick Douglass

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Who is not eager?

Who – only let him be a man and intent upon honor – is not eager for the honorable ordeal and prompt to assume perilous duties? To what energetic man is not idleness a punishment?

~ Seneca

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Memorial Day 2014

Memorial Day – May 26, 2014

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Persistence

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.

Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.

Persistence and Determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “Press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

~ Calvin Coolidge

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The right state of mind

Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. When I believe I can, I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn’t have it in the beginning.

~ Mohandas Gandhi

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A man must know his destiny

A man must know his destiny… if he does not recognize it, then he is lost. By this I mean, once, twice, or at the very most, three times, fate will reach out and tap a man on the shoulder… if he has the imagination, he will turn around and fate will point out to him what fork in the road he should take, if he has the guts, he will take it.

~ George S. Patton

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Just act like one

Want to be a man? By which I mean; honesty, integrity, reliability, rectitude, morality, moral fortitude, wisdom, knowledge, circumspection . . .

…uh, yeah, I wish I was more of those things.

Then just act like one. You don’t get to put this off until you feel like getting around to it.

I beat the drum about The Art of Manliness pretty regularly, and here are two more percussive suggestions:

Manliness Doesn’t Just Happen

Want to Feel Like a Man? Then Act Like One

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