day no. 15,633: vertebrates and crustaceans

In reading The Art of Manliness, Manvotionals: Timeless Wisdom and Advice on Living the 7 Manly Virtues by Brett McKay, I came across the following quote,

"Brave men are vertebrates; they have their softness on the surface and their toughness in the middle.  But these modern cowards are all crustaceans; their hardness is all on the cover and their softness is inside." -- G.K. Chesterton

There is a world of difference between those playing the man and those playing at manhood. Those who play the man resolve in their depths to do what a man would do because the situation demands it from them. Those who play at manhood resolve to look like a man would on the surface because others are watching. Those playing the man have cold, hard steel in their spines, but kindness in their eyes whereas those playing at manhood have steel in their gaze, but warm, soft niceness in their bones. The brave are reliable because they are firm in their center and soft at their fingertips. Cowards are unreliable because they are soft in their center and rigid in their fingertips. A coward is inflexible where he ought to be soft and flexible were he ought to be hard.