Top 35 Brett McKay Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Courage does not consist in the absence of fear, but in the conquest of it.”

— Brett McKay

2. “True leadership is not about superiority, position or prestige. It’s about revealing and releasing the potential of those around you. Leadership is not about the power of one, but facilitating the greatness of many.”

— Brett McKay

3. “For the Romans, gravitas denoted a man’s metaphorical “heaviness” – a strength of purpose, sense of authority, depth of character, and commitment to the task at hand that together formed a structure sturdy enough to bear the weight of his significant responsibilities.”

— Brett McKay

4. “Preparing food for your guest is an ancient rite of hospitality.”

— Brett McKay

5. “There are two ways to define manhood. One way is to say that manhood is the opposite of womanhood. The other way is is to say that manhood is the opposite of childhood.”

— Brett McKay

6. “Truly it may be said that the outside of a mountain is good for the inside of a man.” – GEORGE WHERRY.”

— Brett McKay

7. “Listen more than you speak. We could all benefit a great deal if we opened our ears and shut our mouth more often. Make it a goal in each conversation to speak less than the other person.”

— Brett McKay

8. “Don’t talk or answer your cell phone while talking to ANYONE in person. There are no exceptions to this rule. Don’t answer it when you’re talking to someone at a party. Don’t answer it when you’re eating at a restaurant. Don’t answer it when you’re making a purchase or ordering food; the server or clerk is not a robot; each is a human being deserving of your respect.”

— Brett McKay

9. “Few things are more annoying than a man who must constantly one-up others during conversation.”

— Brett McKay

10. “Make it your goal to have your children say about you what Theodore Roosevelt said about his father: “My father was the best man I ever knew. He combined strength and courage with gentleness, tenderness, and great unselfishness. He would not tolerate in us children selfishness or cruelty, idleness, cowardice, or untruthfulness.”

— Brett McKay

11. “Barbers, on the other hand, are interesting guys with fascinating stories to tell. And I in turn feel at ease to say what’s on my mind. We converse about politics, cars, sports and family. Guys who are waiting read the newspaper and comment on current events. And everyone is involved: the barbers, the customers getting their haircut and the customers waiting to get their haircut.”

— Brett McKay

12. “What you speak is a mirror of what you think. Filling your mind with positive, clear, intelligent thoughts will ensure that what you speak will benefit others and yourself.”

— Brett McKay

13. “True leaders, even when a subordinate is at fault, will take full responsibility for a mistake. An effective leader will then immediately take action to correct the situation.”

— Brett McKay

14. “A man’s path to virtuous excellence begins with his pursuit of the seven manly virtues. These virtues, if diligently sought after and lived, will help a man unlock his fullest power and potential. The seven virtues are: Manliness Courage Industry Resolution Self-Reliance Discipline Honor These seven virtues can be striven for by any man, in any situation.”

— Brett McKay

15. “Unfortunately, many modern men place the gentleman on the sissy end of the manliness spectrum, opposite that of the burping, unshaven, uncouth, “man’s man.” Yet our forebears understood that there was no contradiction in being ruggedly manly and a refined gentleman.”

— Brett McKay

16. “A boy will dabble in a thousand pursuits and then drop them when he gets bored or they become too difficult. A man will always finish what he starts.”

— Brett McKay

17. “In the great battle of life, no brilliancy of intellect, no perfection of bodily development, will count when weighed in the balance against the assemblage of virtues, active and passive, of moral qualities which we group together under the name of character.” – THEODORE ROOSEVELT.”

— Brett McKay

18. “Yet sacrifice is one of the key qualities of true men. Every man must be ready to put aside thoughts of his own welfare or pressing schedule and be willing to come to the aid of those in need. No man knows precisely how he will act in the moment of crisis. But he can prepare himself to make the right choice when that day comes by daily cultivating a generous and compassionate attitude and by learning the skills necessary to be able to step in to help without hesitation.”

— Brett McKay

19. “All of history’s great leaders had moments of glorious success and moments of devastating defeat. Great leaders focus on the things they can change and influence, and the past is not one of those things. If you fail, learn from it but cease to dwell on it. When you succeed, celebrate with your followers and move on.”

— Brett McKay

20. “A man should wear trousers at navel level, not below it.”

— Brett McKay

21. “Wanted, a man “who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are trained to heed a strong will, the servant of a tender conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of nature or of art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself.”

— Brett McKay

22. “The motto of chivalry is also the motto of wisdom; to serve all, but love only one.” – HONORE DE BALZAC.”

— Brett McKay

23. “So our definition of manliness, like that of the ancients, is simple: striving for virtue, honor, and excellence in all areas of your life, fulfilling your potential as a man, and being the absolute best brother, friend, husband, father and citizen you can be.”

— Brett McKay

24. “But the problem is not that this man is a nice guy; it’s that he’s allowed his niceness to travel down the slippery slope into weinerdom.”

— Brett McKay

25. “Living in a very cynical age, we’re not used to such unabashed, guileless sincerity.”

— Brett McKay

26. “If we desire to be good, we must first of all desire to be brave, that against all opposition, scorn, and danger we may move straight onward to do the right.”

— Brett McKay

27. “Everyone loves to hear of such heroic acts not only because they are inspiring but because they are rarer in an increasingly anonymous and isolated society, a world where it is far easier to step over the man in need than to risk life and limb to save him.”

— Brett McKay

28. “Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage.” – THEODORE ROOSEVELT.”

— Brett McKay

29. “You haven’t lived until you’ve experienced the pleasures of a great shave at a barber. It’s a relaxing, luxurious experience.”

— Brett McKay

30. “How could he have been an eagle and not have pride? His contention was that it was finer for a finite mortal speck of life to feel Godlike, than for a god to feel godlike; and so it was that he exalted what he deemed his mortality.”

— Brett McKay

31. “A woman can still be a man’s equal, and yet be worthy of being treated with honor, respect.”

— Brett McKay

32. “Many men today feel inexplicably restless, unfulfilled and depressed. They seek all the things society tells them will heal their man spirit: carefully watching their diet, taking supplements, exercising and visiting a shrink. And yet they find no relief. Why? They’re skipping out on perhaps the most crucial element in maintaining their manly vigor: spending time in the great outdoors.”

— Brett McKay

33. “The ability to show hospitality has been a measure of one’s character across cultures and time.”

— Brett McKay

34. “In this way, Jesus might be seen by the faithful as the ultimate “Gentleman Barbarian” – he had the power and capacity to destroy all of his enemies with a wave of the hand, but chose to lay down his life – making the sacrifice not an act of weakness but of perfect and complete will.”

— Brett McKay

35. “Every man must be ready to put aside thoughts of his own welfare or pressing schedule and be willing to come to the aid of those in need.”

— Brett McKay

36. “The deepest vocational question is not ‘What ought I to do with my life?’” the author Parker J. Palmer writes. “It is the more elemental and demanding ‘Who am I? What is my nature?’” The Overstreets put it this way: as a man matures, he “learns, as it were, where he leaves off and the world begins,” and “his fateful task becomes that of finding out who he is: where he belongs, what he can do, what significance he has.”

— Brett McKay

37. “Rather than requiring all of their experiences to be ready-made, and perfectly presented, the mature possess the creativity needed to make their own fun, and the most of whatever life throws at them.”

— Brett McKay

38. “Children, we know, learn to love by being loved – so that the initiative rests with the parent; and we are beginning to realize that most people at all age levels still have enough of the child in them that they can respond to good will more readily than they can make the first affirmative move. Thus, in most human relationships, we might say, the initiative rests with the individual who has achieved the parental orientation.” – The Mind Alive.”

— Brett McKay