Name: Thoughts for Young Men
ISBN: 9781848716520

John Charles Ryle

Thoughts for Young Men is practical, spiritual, and lively. Abounding in advice and good sense, it is still as relevant and helpful in the twenty-first century as it was when it was first published in 1865.

Thoughts for Young Men

Sean Wilson

[…] So young men run into sin, and then say, 'I did not think about it,--it did not look like sin.' Not look like sin! What would you have? Sin will not come to you, saying, 'I am sin'; it would do little harm if it did.
Great little stream of exhortations to young men, perhaps aimed a little younger than myself, but I couldn't imagine growing to an age where this wouldn't be nourishing. The theme of "habit" crops up regularly: the main reason this is a book for young men is that this is the age when there are fewer sunk costs and accumulated patterns of life.
A minor but notable drawback is Ryle's reliance on dualism: thus, the fight against lust becomes a battle to favour the soul over the body, which "was only intended to be a house for your immortal spirit". The moral exhortations attached are very good, even where the anthropology is sketchy.

Thoughts for Young Men

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