A Manly Bag For Your Manly Book: The Saddleback Leather Company Contest/Giveaway

Be a man, do the right thing!!

Sign me up!!

Something that will never go out of style: Integrity

Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired and discouraged men who kept on working.

Work is, ideally, timeless.

two tidbits of wisdom that I’ve always relied on…

“Well done is better than well said”
-Ben Franklin

“The next thing to being wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are”
-C.S. Lewis

“Nothing comes next. This is it.”

A timeless object? Well, it’s a somewhat silly one but I’d say army men. Not men in the armed forces but the little (usually green) plastic toys. Also the cowboys and Indians made just like them.
My grandpa played with them, my dad and uncles played with them, I played with them, and now my four year old nephew’s favourite toys are his hot-wheels and his army men.

I would use these to assist with my PhD work, thus earning the always-manly title of “Doctor”.

I would love to win that manly laptop case and give my boyish backpack a rest!

A timeless quote which in which I firmly believe:
“Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”
Winston Churchill

Breaking in a new baseball glove is a timeless activity that fathers can help their sons with. I’m looking forward to helping my son with his when the time comes.

Timeless: A cup of coffee, a newspaper, and a seat with a view.

Love the laptop bag.

Diggin’ the laptop bag.

I think the triumph of good over evil is timeless. So many stories are about this and when they’re told right they stay with us for centuries.

with this bag i hope to compete with Indiana Jones

I think something that SHOULD never go out of style, but I think it is going out of style, is the mindset that men are supposed to be the protectors of women!

One of the best ways to love your children is to love their mother.

““Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense”
Winston Churchill

A rational man is guided by his thinking – by a process of Reason – not by his feelings and desires.
Ayn Rand

Saddleback goods can’t be beat.

*fingers crossed* for the comment win! and submitting a photo soon.

Both the full briefcase and the laptop case look like real works of art. Sign me up!

I believe in the importance of the bag, as nothing is as timeless as the readiness of a man who has all his things accounted for and at hand. Notebooks, tools, glasses, etc.

Very cool bags…and if someone makes fun of your man bag…heavy enough to beat them down with

“That man can be conscious of himself in his contemplation raises him infinitely above all other living creatures on earth.” -Immanuel Kant

I have been lusting over these bags!

Like many of the posters, I thought about sharing some timeless quotes, but I wanted to explore something other than Churchill, TR, Hemingway, or any of the greats already mentioned time and again here. What I’d like to share are quotes from two very famous, and very different, Brazilian writers.

“Forgetting is essential. Life is a chalkboard in which fate, in order to write a new story, must erase the story already written.” – Machado de Assis

“Hardship is the structural steel needed for the construction of character” – Carlos Drummond de Andrade

These little tidbits of wisdom are, in my opinion, both timeless and universally true.

I need that bag!

Nothing more timeless than the Golden rule.

The Idea of a University
by Cardinal John Henry Newman
Part 1 – University Teaching
Discourse 8 – Knowledge Viewed in Relation to Religion
Section 10

Hence it is that it is almost a definition of a gentleman to say he is one who never inflicts pain. This description is both refined and, as far as it goes, accurate. He is mainly occupied in merely removing the obstacles which hinder the free and unembarrassed action of those about him; and he concurs with their movements rather than takes the initiative himself. His benefits may be considered as parallel to what are called comforts or conveniences in arrangements of a personal nature: like an easy chair or a good fire, which do their part in dispelling cold and fatigue, though nature provides both means of rest and animal heat without them. The true gentleman in like manner carefully avoids whatever may cause a jar or a jolt in the minds of those with whom he is cast;—all clashing of opinion, or collision of feeling, all restraint, or suspicion, or gloom, or resentment; his great concern being to make every one at their ease and at home. He has his eyes on all his company; he is tender towards the bashful, gentle towards the distant, and merciful towards the absurd; he can recollect to whom he is speaking; he guards against unseasonable allusions, or topics which may irritate; he is seldom prominent in conversation, and never wearisome. He makes light of favours while he does them, and seems to be receiving when he is conferring. He never speaks of himself except when compelled, never defends himself by a mere retort, he has no ears for slander or gossip, is scrupulous in imputing motives to those who interfere with him, and interprets every thing for the best. He is never mean or little in his disputes, never takes unfair advantage, never mistakes personalities or sharp sayings for arguments, or insinuates evil which he dare not say out. From a long-sighted prudence, he observes the maxim of the ancient sage, that we should ever conduct ourselves towards our enemy as if he were one day to be our friend. He has too much good sense to be affronted at insults, he is too well employed to remember injuries, and too indolent to bear malice. He is patient, forbearing, and resigned, on philosophical principles; he submits to pain, because it is inevitable, to bereavement, because it is irreparable, and to death, because it is his destiny. If he engages in controversy of any kind, his disciplined intellect preserves him from the blundering discourtesy of better, perhaps, but less educated minds; who, like blunt weapons, tear and hack instead of cutting clean, who mistake the point in argument, waste their strength on trifles, misconceive their adversary, and leave the question more involved than they find it. He may be right or wrong in his opinion, but he is too clear-headed to be unjust; he is as simple as he is forcible, and as brief as he is decisive. Nowhere shall we find greater candour, consideration, indulgence: he throws himself into the minds of his opponents, he accounts for their mistakes. He knows the weakness of human reason as well as its strength, its province and its limits. If he be an unbeliever, he will be too profound and large-minded to ridicule religion or to act against it; he is too wise to be a dogmatist or fanatic in his infidelity. He respects piety and devotion; he even supports institutions as venerable, beautiful, or useful, to which he does not assent; he honours the ministers of religion, and it contents him to decline its mysteries without assailing or denouncing them. He is a friend of religious toleration, and that, not only because his philosophy has taught him to look on all forms of faith with an impartial eye, but also from the gentleness and effeminacy of feeling, which is the attendant on civilization.

Friends and family find it funny that I’m 25 and am willing to spend the extra money on a nice suit, or a decent watch, or a bow tie that isn’t pre-tied; or that my boss finds it peculiar when I’ll take responsibility for something that goes wrong instead of throwing a co-worker under the bus. Glad to see there is a community of guys out there that share the same ideals.

“The true perfection of man lies not in what man has, but in what man is.”

–Oscar Wilde

Just something to keep in mind as we all lust after these wonderful Saddleback Leather products.

I have one saddleback leather bag. Nice stuff. Would love to win another….

nylon bags suck

This weekend, we watched the “punkin chunkin” contest on Discovery. There is a trebuchet category – trebuchets are ancient weapons designed to use physics to hurl an object and breach walls. What struck me was that the winner of the category is the one that followed an actual design from the past, rather then trying to make a modern interpretation. Many of the simple objects and tools of our lives, like hammers, chisels, and handsaws have this “timeless” feel – the idea that centuries of humans have refined the design and made a classic. What I realized is that the same process exists for complicated matters – if you want to hurl an object using gravity, there is no finer design nor more classic and timeless methodology then that of the “grendel” trebuchet.

Spent some time playing basketball lately at the YMCA gym, and I think some men must have lost the ability to win gracefully. What a shame.

Here’s a latin proverb I try to live by that I consider to be timeless:

“Wise men learn by the mistakes of others, fools by their own.”

I think that a great fedora is always timeless. As is good manners, opening the door for a lady and calling your mother once a week.

Being honest is always a timeless quality

Gray flannel suit. I don’t think you can get more sartorially classic then that.

“Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday’s success or put its failures behind and start over again. That’s the way life is, with a new game every day, and that’s the way baseball is.” – Bob Feller

I’d love to get one of these bags. I’ve had so many cheap bags I could sure use a bag that does not fall apart after two years.

smoking a corncob pipe… relaxing and smells good.

Clint Eastwood films, especially the man with no name trilogy. lines, cinematography, music, the look. Will live on forever.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.” — Theodore Roosevelt

“You cannot manage men into battle. You manage things; you lead people.” Grace Hopper, Admiral, U. S. Navy Retired, Nova PBS TV

Bitterness is the poison that we take hoping it will hurt someone else.

I have a Saddleback leather bag and can not imagine a better prize. My wife has been begging me to buy her one since the day I received mine in the mail. i had been looking for a bag like this for years. I wanted something that was going to last forever, not cost me a bloody fortune and, as Dave says, be something my kids would fight over. Primarily I wanted “the” bag that I could carry forever.

My wife found me this bag on the internet. We did some research and looked over every page on Dave’s website. I couldn’t quite bring myself to buy it. After all, I was unemployed as I had taken the year off to care for my grandfather while he was sick and could not justify buying a bag of this costs at a time when I did not have any income and was living a thousand miles from the house I was still paying for and didn’t see a paycheck in the near future. My Grandfather had passed away a month before and my wife and I had decided to stick around and care for my grandmother and make sure everything was going to be ok.

As i was sitting at the kitchen table discussing why I should not buy such an expensive bag with my wife, my Grandmother told me that she would buy it and it would be a gift from her and my Grandfather that Christmas. I resisted, but she insisted that she buy it. I received my bag almost 2 years ago and at least once a day I think about the fact that this bag is from my Grandfather. I think about how it is one of the few things that I will have around for years to come that will consistently remind me of him. I have it with me constantly. It also makes me think about the fact that he lived in an era when you could still buy things that would last a lifetime. The bag is not only perfect for it construction and obvious workmanship, but for the way it makes me feel. About life, about society, and for the memory that this was the last Christmas gift my Grandfather gave me.

The Art of Suffering lies beneath The Art of Manliness… for when we suffer, and in turn persevere… we truly become men.

Great looking bags