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W. Ryan Melson
https://www.goodreads.com/wryanmelson
“At the supreme moment of his career, Crazy Horse took in the situation with a glance, then acted with great decisiveness. He fought with his usual reckless bravery on Custer Hill, providing as always an example for the other warriors to admire, draw courage from, and emulate, but his real contribution to this greatest of all Indian victories was mental, not physical. For the first time in his life, Crazy Horse’s presence was decisive on the battlefield not because of his courage, but because of his brain. But one fed on the other. His outstanding generalship had brought him at the head of a ferocious body of warriors to the critical point at the critical moment. Then with his courage he took advantage of the situation to sweep down on Custer and stamp his name, and that of Custer, indelibly on the pages of the nation’s history.”
― Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors
― Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors
“What God and good luck provide we must accept with gratitude. Our time is our time. It’s up to us to make the most of it, make it amount to more than the sum of our days.”
― The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations
― The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations
“Praise and attention are fleeting, and then gone. The leader is left feeling empty unless she authentically connects her success with a more lasting purpose.”
― Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude
― Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude
“Leadership, like fertilizer, contains elements that can be volatile or nurturing, depending on how one handles them.”
― Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude
― Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude
“There are times when even the best leaders lose their emotional balance. Leadership brings with it responsibility, and responsibility, in times of serious adversity, brings emotional turmoil and strain. In this sense responsibility is like a lever, which can upset a leader’s emotional balance when adversity presses down hard on one end. When the adversity is threatening enough or comes without warning, it can unbalance the leader at a single stroke. Even a leader as great as Lincoln was floored more than once in this way. Other times the effect is cumulative, coming after a period of sustained high tension—of pressure on one end and resistance on the other—until finally the leader’s equanimity begins to give way. The point is that every leader has her emotional limits, and there is no shame in exceeding them. What distinguishes effective leaders from inferior ones, rather, is their ability to restore their emotional balance.”
― Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude
― Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude
Stoic Book Club
— 890 members
— last activity Feb 17, 2026 10:41PM
This club is about traditional Stoicism with the distinct purpose of enabling and promoting discourse on Stoic philosophy as a way of life.
W. Ryan’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at W. Ryan’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
136 books
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18 friends
140 books
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37 friends
448 books
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113 friends
107 books
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104 friends
328 books
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38 friends
1,897 books
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174 friends
0 books
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46 friends
45 books
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72 friends
More friends…
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