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The Heart and the Fist
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The Heart and the Fist (2011) (edit title/settings)

The Education of a Humanitarian, the Making of a Navy SEAL

by Eric Greitens (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

THE HEART AND THE FIST shares one man’s story of extraordinary leadership and service as both a humanitarian and a warrior. In a life lived at the raw edges of the human experience, Greitens has seen what can be accomplished when compassion and courage come together in meaningful service. ... read more

Summary edit see section history

Grietens details the events in his life, including multiple engagements in charitable organizations, leading to his decision that military involvement is the surest way to promote peace worldwide. It also delineates the steps leading up to the establishment of a non-profit organization to... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Grietens details the events in his life, including multiple engagements in charitable organizations, leading to his decision that military involvement is the surest way to promote peace worldwide. It also delineates the steps leading up to the establishment of a non-profit organization to serve returning war veterans.

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “The world needs many more humanitarians than it needs warriors, but there can be none of the former without enough of the latter.”
  • “"Each one of you is like an earthen vessel, a beautiful piece of pottery. Prettied up by your fathers and mothers and teachers with tender loving care. In a few days, hell week is going to begin, and we're going to take every one of you out onto the Grinder and we're going to smash you on the ground, break you open and we're going to see what's inside each one of you."With many of you, we'll find nothing. There's just air. You are empty men without substance. "For others, when you break we're going to have to turn away from the smell because you live in a weak culture that has allowed you to get by on charm and pretty talk and back-slapping and you have practiced dishing manure for so long that it almost seeps out of your every pore. And now that is what you are. "For others, when we smash you we'll find inside a sword made of pure Damascus steel. And you are going to become Navy Seals"”
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • 'What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.'
    Highlighted by 507 Kindle customers
  • 'I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.'
    Highlighted by 490 Kindle customers
  • The philosopher John Stuart Mill once wrote, 'War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.'8
    Highlighted by 355 Kindle customers
  • There were a number of definitions of courage, but now I was seeing it in its simplest form: you do what has to be done day after day, and you never quit.
    Highlighted by 315 Kindle customers
  • without courage, compassion falters, and that without compassion, courage has no direction.
    Highlighted by 311 Kindle customers
  • Emerson once wrote that concentration is the secret of strength. You can't chase two rabbits at once.
    Highlighted by 304 Kindle customers
  • The great dividing line between words and results was courageous action.
    Highlighted by 293 Kindle customers
  • Alone, human beings can feel hunger. Alone, we can feel cold. Alone, we can feel pain. To feel poor, however, is something we do only in comparison to others.
    Highlighted by 274 Kindle customers
  • Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and author of Man's Search for Meaning, wrote that human beings create meaning in three ways: through their work, through their relationships, and by how they choose to meet unavoidable suffering. Every life brings hardship and trial, and every life also offers deep possibilities for meaningful work and love.
    Highlighted by 260 Kindle customers
  • On the frontlines—in humanitarian crises, in wars overseas, and around some kitchen tables here at home—I'd seen that peace is more than the absence of war, and that a good life entails more than the absence of suffering. A good peace, a solid peace, a peace in which communities can flourish, can only be built when we ask ourselves and each other to be more than just good, and better than just strong. And a good life, a meaningful life, a life in which we can enjoy the world and live with purpose, can only be built if we do more than live for ourselves.
    Highlighted by 210 Kindle customers
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Organizations edit see section history

  • The Mission Continues: A non-profit foundation started by the author, Eric Greitens, that encourages war veterans to continue their service at home.

First Sentence edit see section history

The first mortar round landed as the sun was rising.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Contents
Preface

I: MIND AND FIST
1. IRAQ 
2. CHINA
3. BOXING

II: HEART AND MIND
4. BOSNIA
5. RWANDA
6. BOLIVIA
7. OXFORD

III: HEART AND FIST
8. OFICER CANDIDATE SCHOOL
9. SEAL TRAINING 
10. HELL WEEK
11. ADVANCED COMBAT TRAINING
12. AFGHANISTAN
13. SOUTHEAST ASIA
14. KENYA
15. IRAQ 
EPILOGUE: THE MISSION CONTINUES
Author’s Note and Acknowledgments
Notes

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Eric Greitens (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Country: USA
Publication Date: April 11, 2011
ISBN: 978-0547424859
Page Count: 320

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: V63.G74 A3 2011
  • Dewey: 359.984

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