The Art of Manliness - Manvotionals - Brett McKay [2]
Finally, all the selections were chosen simply on the basis of readability, strength, and wisdom. The selections are long enough to impart profound insight and short enough to remain engaging. Too many anthologies like this one end up gathering dust on the coffee table. This book is not designed to make you feel good simply for purchasing it; it is not an ornamental piece for your bookshelf. It is designed to be read and pondered. Each selection was thoughtfully and carefully chosen to hit you right in the heart and inspire you to be a better man. We challenge you to read at least one selection every morning, allowing yourself to meditate upon it during the day. We promise that if you do this, you will grow as a man and will walk a little taller and be a little better by the time you turn the last page.
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AUTHORS’ NOTE: Selections have been edited for readability and length. The original spelling and punctuation of excerpts has been retained in most cases.
CHAPTER ONE
MANLINESS
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Mention the word manliness these days and you’ll probably be greeted with snorts and giggles. Many people today associate manliness with cartoonish images of men sitting in their “man caves,” drinking beer and watching the big game. Or, just as likely, they don’t think much about manliness at all, chalking it up to the mere possession of a certain set of anatomy. Whatever image they have in mind when you mention “manliness,” it isn’t usually positive, and it probably has nothing to do with virtue.
But if you search the annals of Western thought, you’ll discover that this shallow conception of manliness is relatively new. For over two thousand years, many of the world’s great thinkers explored and celebrated the subject of manliness, imagining it not as something silly or biologically inherent, but as the culmination of the virtues as expressed in the life of a man. Manliness was considered a virtue in and of itself, the attainment of which had to be actively pursued.
The epic poetry of the ancient Greeks praised the manliness of their heroes while their philosophy linked virtuous manhood to the health and longevity of society. Throughout the eighteenth century, great statesman tied the cultivation of true manliness to the success of emerging experiments in liberty and democracy. And into the early 1900s, writers encouraged men to embrace manliness as the crown of character and virtue.
This nearly two-thousand-year-old tradition of extolling manliness as a necessary and laudatory aspiration came to an end in the mid-twentieth century. Discussion of character and virtue fell out of favor in general, and talking about manliness as a specific virtue disappeared during our cultural experiment with gender neutrality. Praising manliness became verboten; disparaging it did not. And thus manliness became fodder for broad sitcoms and juvenile magazines.
We’d like to bring back the idea of manliness as a real, distinct virtue, a goal which all men should orient their lives toward. The following chapter highlights some of the best writings we’ve found on the topic of manliness itself. The selections, ranging from ancient Greek poetry to passages from nineteenth-century “success manuals,” show that far from being the hazy concept it is seen as today, the definition of true manliness has been clear and consistent for thousands of years.
The selections are designed not only to explain what true, honorable manliness looks like and consists of, but also to resonate on a deeper level, giving you an idea of what manliness feels like. We hope that as you read this chapter, you will be inspired to place the ideal of manliness ever before you.
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Wanted—A Man
FROM PUSHING TO THE FRONT, 1911
By Orison Swett Marden
Over the door of every profession, every occupation, every calling, the world has a standing advertisement: “Wanted—A Man.