304 pages
I love Steven Mansfield, and Mansfield’s Book Of Manly Men was worth the read. In it, Mansfield walks us through 4 crucial tenants of manhood using examples of great historical figures. This book simultaneously inspires one to go on an adventure, blow something up, and defend that which is right.
Two of my favorite quotes:
Honorable men refuse to wallow in the small and the bitter. Honorable men refuse to hate life because something once went wrong. Honorable men don’t build monuments to their disappointments, nor do they let others brand them and curse them to their destruction. Honorable men seek out the highest definition of their lives, the nobler meaning granted by heritage, by their ancestors’ dreams and their parents’ hopes. Honorable men cry out to God until curses are broken and a grander purpose is achieved. Honorable men don’t settle for lives of regret.
Let’s be blunt. Men need to bark at the moon. Men need to blow something up. Men need to push themselves into a zone they don’t control—that in fact isn’t actually a zone. Men need to go in pursuit. They need a quest.