Articles & Essays

But here it will be well for me to entreat the reader, in all courtesy, not to think that I contend with Thucydides in matters so pathetically, vividly, and eloquently, beyond all imitation, and even beyond himself, expressed by him; nor to believe me guilty of the like folly with Timaeus, who, hoping in his history to surpass Thucydides in art, and to make Philistus appear a trifler and a novice,…

Though he was elder brother, he would not step into authority without him, but deferred his own advance until his brother was qualified to bear a share with him, and so won upon the people, as when absent to be chosen Ædile with him. For nothing is more intractable than man when in felicity, nor anything more docile, when he has been reduced and humbled by fortune.

There is something very special about gentlemen gathering among themselves for an intentional conversation, and that was the case thousands of years ago for ancient men just as much as it is for us today. The hostility of our culture toward men has placed many in a horrible predicament: forcing them either to tame themselves to avoid harassment or to endure the slurry of names meant to reduce thei…

And finding all his approaches, his gifts, and his entreaties alike repulsed, he showed violent inclinations to assault Damon. No Greek before Cimon, nor Roman before Lucullus, ever carried the scene of war so far from their own country; putting out of the question the acts of Bacchus and Hercules, and any exploit of Perseus against the Ethiopians, Medes, and Armenians, or again of Jason, of which…

When men enter into society, it is by voluntary consent; and they have a right to demand and insist upon the performance of such conditions and previous limitations as form an equitable original compact. The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.

And how can you be an honest man, who, since the death of a father who left you nothing, have become so rich? Sylla is a mulberry sprinkled o'er with meal.

O Lord our Heavenly Father, high and mighty King of kings, and Lord of lords, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers on earth and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all the Kingdoms, Empires and Governments; look down in mercy, we beseech Thee, on these our American States, who have fled to Thee from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves on Thy gracious protection…

He is said never to have either studied Greek, or to have made use of that language in any matter of consequence; thinking it ridiculous to bestow time in that learning, the teachers of which were little better than slaves. So if any could have persuaded Marius to pay his devotions to the Greek Muses and Graces, he had never brought his incomparable actions, both in war and peace, to so unworthy a…

It is the true glory of a man to share in the toils of his own people. when passionate men are unified behind a mission that is when true social and cultural change occurs.

Pyrrhus, yet an infant, and searched for by the enemy, had been stolen away and carried off by Androclides end Angelus; who, however, being obliged to take with them a few servants, and women to nurse the child, were much impeded and retarded in their flight, and when they were now overtaken, they delivered the infant to Androcleon, Hippias, and Neander, faithful and able young fellows, giving the…

These buildings do not smile at you, do not invite you in, and do not acknowledge your dignity as a human being. Beauty requires effort.

But being ever thirsty after honour, and passionate for glory, if anything of a greater and more extraordinary nature were to be done, he was eager to be the doer of it himself; and took more pleasure in those that needed, than in those that were capable of conferring favours; looking on the former as objects for his virtue, and on the latter as competitors in glory. Now Greece (which had not hith…

Since the dawn of time great civilizations have all had one thing in common; men's societies. This tradition continued through American culture up until the 60s & 70s when many fraternal groups were infiltrated and disemboweled.

And one of the Romans, to praise him, calls him the last of the Greeks; as if after him Greece had produced no great man, nor who deserved the name of Greek. The love of honour and distinction was, in his character, not unalloyed with feelings of personal rivalry and resentment.

There is something so serene and simple about it, but profound and thought-provoking at the same time. It is these quiet and idyllic scenes in nature that give one's mind a rest from the ever-present nerve of modernity.

His ancestors seeming almost entirely unknown, he himself praises his father Marcus, as a worthy man and a brave soldier, and Cato, his great-grandfather, too, as one who had often obtained military prizes, and who, having lost five horses under him, received, on the account of his valour, the worth of them out of the public exchequer. He gained, in early life, a good habit of body by working with…

Far off in the mountains of Virginia there is a group of Christian Gentlemen building a boys boarding school. The devil was said to have lingered around St. Dunstan's cell many times and in many forms.

Put a boy in the woods and watch how long it takes for him to start painting his face and shooting arrows across the sky. If we can wake him up, and tame him, we can do whatever we want in life.

But this argument, though in appearance the strongest, is of the least moment of any. But Aristides walked, so to say, alone on his own path in politics, being unwilling, in the first place, to go along with his associates in ill-doing, or to cause them vexation by not gratifying their wishes; and, secondly, observing that many were encouraged by the support they had in their friends to act injuri…

Marcellus, ignorant or unskillful of no kind of fighting, in single combat surpassed himself; he never declined a challenge, and never accepted without killing his challenger. So much were all things at Rome made to depend upon religion; they would not allow any contempt of the omens and the ancient rites, even though attended with the highest success: thinking it to be of more importance to the p…

There is a difference between a man's prizing valor at a great rate, and valuing life at little; This I thought fit to premise before the lives of Pelopidas and Marcellus, who were both great men, but who both fell by their own rashness.

For he did not practice oratory with a view to pleading causes, nor would he stoop to salute, embrace, and entertain the vulgar, which were the usual insinuating arts by which many grew popular. Nor was he less severe, in requiring and observing the ancient Roman discipline in military affairs; not endeavoring, when he had the command, to ingratiate himself with his soldiers by popular flattery, t…

I find myself proceeding and attaching myself to it for my own; the virtues of these great men serving me as a sort of looking-glass, in which I may see how to adjust and adorn my own life. men equally famous, not only for their virtues, but success; insomuch that they have left it doubtful whether they owe their greatest achievements to good fortune, or their own prudence and conduct.

On the other hand, the same Marcius bore witness for those who hold that a generous and noble nature, if it lack discipline, is apt to produce much that is worthless along with its better fruits, like a rich soil deprived of the husbandman's culture. But whereas other men found in glory the chief end of valour, he found the chief end of glory in his mother's gladness.

It has been said not untruly that the friendship which Socrates felt for him has much contributed to his fame; and certain it is, that, though we have no account from any writer concerning the mother of Nicias or Demosthenes, of Lamachus or Phormion, of Thrasybulus or Theramenes, notwithstanding these were all illustrious men of the same period, yet we know even the nurse of Alcibiades, that her c…

His slowness in speaking, his long labour and pains in learning, his deliberation in entering into the sports of other children, his easy submission to everybody, as if he had no will of his own, made those who judge superficially of him, the greater number, esteem him insensible and stupid; and few only saw that this tardiness proceeded from stability, and discerned the greatness of his mind, and…

But virtue, by the bare statement of its actions, can so affect men's minds as to create at once both admiration of the things done and desire to imitate the doers of them. And so we have thought fit to spend our time and pains in writing of the lives of famous persons; and have composed this tenth book upon that subject, containing the life of Pericles, and that of Fabius Maximus, who carried on…

Among the many remarkable things that are related of Furius Camillus, it seems singular and strange above all, that he, who continually was in the highest commands, and obtained the greatest successes, was five times chosen dictator, triumphed four times, and was styled a second founder of Rome, yet never was so much as once consul. But the Alban lake, that is fed by no other waters but its own, a…

You, my boy, will be nothing small, but great one way or other, for good or else for bad. the trophy of Miltiades would not let him sleep.

By Plutarch / Translated by John Dryden The treasure-chamber of the Acanthians at Delphi has this inscription: "The spoils which Brasidas and the Acanthians took from the Athenians.

The illegal and wicked accession of Tarquinius Superbus to the crown, with his making it, instead of kingly rule, the instrument of insolence and tyranny, having inspired the people with a hatred to his reign, upon the death of Lucretia (she killing herself after violence had been done to her), they took an occasion of revolt; and Lucius Brutus, engaging in the change, came to Valerius before all…

I spent several days and nights in mid-September with an ailing pig and I feel driven to account for this stretch of time, more particularly since the pig died at last, and I lived, and things might easily have gone the other way round and none left to do the accounting. The loss we felt was not the loss of ham but the loss of pig.

For that Solon was not proof against beauty, nor of courage to stand up to passion and meet it- "Hand to hand as in the ring," we may conjecture by his poems, and one of his laws, in which there are practices forbidden to slaves, which he would appear, therefore, to recommend to freemen. Solon, as Hermippus writes, when his father had ruined his estate in doing benefits and kindnesses to other men…

Standing at the base of a mountain, looking up at an unknown region desired; man is positioned at the physical symbol for all of his hopes and desires. It is not the erasure of this desire, but the orientation of this desire, which marks the maturity of the man.

Suddenly the sky was darkened, a thick cloud of storm and rain settled on the earth; the common people fled in affright, and were dispersed; and in this whirlwind Romulus disappeared, his body being never found either living or dead. He was endued with a soul rarely tempered by nature, and disposed to virtue, which he had yet more subdued by discipline, a severe life, and the study of philosophy;…

He is often quoted in classrooms and carved into memory by a few famous lines, yet the fuller story is quieter, more human, and far more instructive. I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

There is so much uncertainty in the accounts which historians have left us of Lycurgus, the lawgiver of Sparta, that scarcely anything is asserted by one of them which is not called into question or contradicted by the rest. Abhorring the woman's wickedness, he nevertheless did not reject her proposal, but, making show of closing with her, despatched the messenger with thanks and expressions of jo…

From whom, and for what reason, the city of Rome, a name so great in glory, and famous in the mouths of all men, was so first called, authors do not agree. While the infants lay here, history tells us, a she-wolf nursed them, and a woodpecker constantly fed and watched them; these creatures a

Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, the legendary Confederate general of the American Civil War, remains an enduring figure in history not merely for his tactical brilliance but for the profound depths of his personal character. To attempt to portray the life of Jackson while leaving out the religious element would be like undertaking to describe Switzerland without making mention of the Alps.

What emerges is a portrait of a man who understood that public leadership rests on private conduct. In an age drawn to noise and immediacy, Pericles reminds us that strength often speaks most clearly through restraint.

Terrible tho the destruction of the Civil War was, awful tho it was that such a conflict should occur between brothers, it is yet a matter for gratitude on the part of all Americans that this, alone among contests of like magnitude, should have left to both sides as a priceless heritage the memory of the mighty men and the glorious deeds that the iron days brought forth. He stood that hardest of a…

In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the…

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor– Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the goo…

To believe our own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.

It is this sense which furnishes the imagination with its ideas; so that by the pleasures of the imagination, or fancy, (which I shall use promiscuously,) I here mean such as arise from visible objects , either when we have them actually in our view, or when we call up their ideas into our minds by paintings, statues, descriptions, or any the like occasion. A man of polite imagination is let into…

Statues serve as timeless tributes to the heroes who shaped the nation, capturing their essence in classical forms of bronze and marble. These statues are more than men frozen in time; they represent the lineage and traditions that we are a part of.

Facing gods, monsters, and human foes, Odysseus embodies a multifaceted vision of masculinity that transcends brute force, emphasizing cunning, endurance, and emotional depth. Ultimately, Homer's epic affirms that true manhood lies in returning home-not just physically, but as a wiser, more complete self.

Over the last century, men's fashion has undergone a dramatic evolution, shifting from structured elegance to widespread casualization-a trend that has diminished the intentional beauty in daily attire. Yet, this decline presents an opportunity for revival.

In an era where mixed-gender environments dominate educational landscapes, the merits of all-male spaces deserve renewed attention. Fraternity, the profound sense of brotherhood, has been a cornerstone of cultural history since antiquity.

In the early 19th century, as the United States sought to solidify its identity, a bold artistic commission was made: to memorialize George Washington not as a mere statesman, but as a figure of timeless, classical greatness. Beneath his leg lies a sword-an explicit nod to the story of Cincinnatus, the Roman farmer who took up power when his country needed him, only to relinquish it and return to…

The Romans had a simple word for the kind of man other men wanted at their side when things got hard: virtus. He won a war, then walked away from power-twice.

The management of the public revenue–that searching operation in all governments–is among the most delicate and important trusts in ours, and it will, of course, demand no inconsiderable share of my official solicitude. But the bulwark of our defense is the national militia, which in the present state of our intelligence and population must render us invincible.

As Americans, we are the inheritors of the greatest cultural tradition that has ever existed on Planet Earth: Western Civilization. There is a tension in the minds of many Americans right now; a lot of us are wondering what we can do to fight back against the self-evident evils that are increasingly encroaching on American values.

One who desires an understanding of the cosmos and how to debate policy, to contemplate Greece and wrestle with Virginia, to study history and to apply those lessons to the present. Like a thief in the night, artificial intelligence has inserted itself into our lives.

There is a great joy that comes when we are building something meaningful. Fr. Mark's focus on male rites of passage for students is a breath of fresh air in a time that tells our boys it is bad to be manly.

Reading them is like a meal for one's soul, leaving us to digest the power and wisdom behind these great quotes. The true university of these days is a collection of books.

I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph. Far better it is to d…

Then the reputation of many would not have been imperiled on the eloquence or want of eloquence of one, and their virtues believed or not as he spoke well or ill. And they are surely to be esteemed the bravest spirits who, having the clearest sense both of the pains and pleasures of life, do not on that account shrink from danger.

Michael has deep expertise in the eminent political philosopher Leo Strauss. Through one lens, our problems can be traced to this trajectory:

He walked away from wealth and comfort to serve his nation, fought in Washington's militia, lived and studied with Thomas Jefferson, and led 40 men through the American wilderness for two and a half years. In the prime of his life at the age of 35 years old he would meet cold, merciless fate on the Natchez Trace some 70 miles from Nashville.

But he frontier is more than a place that exists in history books or at the O.K. Corral. We navigate frontiers daily.

In my opinion we might all draw more good from it than we do, and suffer less evil, if we would take care not to give too much for whistles. In short, I conceive that great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by the false estimates they have made of the value of things, and by their giving too much for their whistles.

A man's reputation is only what others think him to be; his character, what God knows him to be… An act often repeated hardens into a habit, and a habit long continued petrifies into character

For every walk is a sort of crusade, preached by some Peter the Hermit in us, to go forth and reconquer this Holy Land from the hands of the Infidels. in Wildness is the preservation of the World.

If you are ready to leave father and mother, and brother and sister, and wife and child and friends, and never see them again, – if you have paid your debts, and made your will, and settled all your affairs, and are a free man, then you are ready for a walk. Yet how can one elevate the status of a walk to the same rank as the spiritual salvation of the human soul, promised by Jesus in his utteranc…

While these may seem like esoteric philosophic questions, they are actually of central practical importance, as Strauss tells us. He alerts us to a crisis: the near-death of political philosophy today and discusses its causes as well as our possible paths forward.

A disagreement over a mathematical formula during a wedding feast. He did not wait for someone to hand him a telescope; he invented his own tools.

On one side stood the philosophers, seekers of truth, advocates for the examined life. They didn't care whether a claim was true-only whether it could be made convincing.

Never before has the human mind so willingly atrophied its reasoning and processing abilities as right now, and everywhere around us we are surrounded by half-wits who are only making themselves dumber every single day. Have you ever met a man with a truly great memory?

I would have missed out big time. There's a lot of smart people here and good connections.

This weekend felt more real than every other weekend before this, of this this year I would even say. That's a really hard thing to find is someone who actually wants to listen but then also wants to teach on top of that.

But more importantly, he lived a remarkable life, one that "thinkers" today do not even aspire to. In a sense, Socrates set himself against the "intellectual elite" while receiving praise from prominent generals of his day.

I am frequently horrified at the site of couples eating out in public, sitting across a table from one another, and paying no attention whatsoever to the other person and instead feeding their attention to whatever social media algorithm had enslaved them for the moment. Eventually you experience the phenomena of the guests building their ideas upon the ideas of the last speaker, and the philosoph…

The books worth reading aren't the ones written to trend. When you read what they wrote, you inherit something modern books can't offer: perspective that has outlived plagues, wars, tyrants, dogma, and doubt.

In the great saga of American exploration, Meriwether Lewis may have been the dreamer, the thinker, and the mystic-but William Clark was the doer, the draftsman, and the bedrock. He was not the most educated, the most brilliant, or the most celebrated.

If you're a man today, you've inherited a strange kind of battlefield. A world where your value is measured in impressions and mutual follows, where masculinity is more often performed than lived.

Because what are columns, really? They're not just stone supports holding up a roof. They're symbols of human values. They're stories cast in marble. You see, men were meant to build things-not just in wood or stone, but in character, in legacy, in spirit.

Behind you walk the spirit of thinkers who believed that truth could be heard in the rustle of trees, that character could be forged in solitude, and that a man ought to live in alignment with the nature that bore him. But just as often, we're channeling something deeply American – a lineage of philosophy born not in ivory towers but in pine forests and frontier cabins.

With a single stroke of the pen, he more than doubled the size of the young republic, acquiring a staggering 828,000 square miles of territory from France in what we now call the Louisiana Purchase. But he also understood something deeper-something men of vision often understand-that sometimes, in the great unfolding of history, principles must make room for destiny.

These moments of beauty-whether in art, architecture, or music-do more than captivate; they transform. You become what you behold.

Its standout feature is the 256-foot waterfall-the highest in the eastern U.S.-cascading into a shaded pool below. For a quieter retreat, Pickett CCC Memorial State Park near Jamestown is a hidden treasure.

That feeling is the beginning of a journey into astronomy-a journey that can transform not just what you know, but who you are. Few experiences inspire awe like contemplating the vastness of the universe.

The debate between Thomas Hobbes and John Locke over human nature isn't just a dusty philosophical relic-it's a lens through which we can examine our lives, our governments, and the world we inhabit. Are we selfish creatures needing control, or rational beings capable of cooperation?

In the grand sweep of Western political thought, few moments stand out as more consequential than the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215. What makes Magna Carta so revolutionary is not just that its authors had the courage to resist a king-but that they had the wisdom to put their resistance in writing.

As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it.

Led to an open plain, Colter was given a head start before hundreds of warriors gave chase, their war cries piercing the air. In a desperate bid for survival, Colter stopped abruptly, turning to face his pursuer.

Imagine yourself miles from civilization, armed with little more than a flint, a blade, and your own ingenuity. Self-reliance isn't just about enduring the desert-it's about bending it to their will, proving that even the harshest places offer sustenance to those who know where to look.

Human beings are naturally wired for stories. A well-told story isn't just entertainment; it has the power to guide us, prepare us for hardships, and give meaning to our experiences.

There's something about the vastness of nature that turns down the noise of everyday life and cranks up the volume on your inner voice. It's not about conquering the mountain-it's about conquering the doubts holding you back.

In an age of DMs, tweets, and endless Zoom calls, something vital has been lost: the power of the spoken word. A man who couldn't articulate his thoughts was considered unfit to lead, to teach, even to fully participate in public life.

Benjamin Franklin was not only one of America's most important Founding Fathers; he was also a man of remarkable wisdom. An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

What makes a "Great Book" so great? The book needs to communicate deeply thought-provoking ideas consistently.

There is something truly magical about that state of focus, some call it a flow state, that lets us tap into some superpower that we have deep down inside all of us. Yet now we live in a world that is increasingly trying to encroach and rob us of that ability to focus.

Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of its members To Emerson, manhood is individuality.

To become a clear writer we must become clear thinkers, and to become clear thinkers is to master our own minds. It is an exercise that, when done intentionally, exposes the deepest levels of our psyche.

"Common souls pay with that which they do, nobler souls with that which they are" – Emerson A part of our nature transcendent of space and time, above history, above cause and effect, flowing from and through all moments of the past, present, and future.