Louis Zamperini – #mancrushmonday

Every Monday At Manlihood.com – we celebrate men of courage, valor, creativity, innovation, and honor. We celebrate men who have accomplished great things, that have set good examples, and then have made the world a better place. This is #mancrushmonday

Louis Zamperini is truly an American hero, and we at Manlihood proudly salute him as this week’s Man Crush Monday!


From Wikipedia:
Louis Silvie “Louie” Zamperini (January 26, 1917 – July 2, 2014) was a US prisoner of war survivor in World War II, a Christian evangelist and an Olympic distance runner.

Zamperini took up running in high school and qualified for the US in the 5000m race for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He finished 8th in the event. In 1941 he was commissioned into the United States Army Air Forces as a Lieutenant. He served as a bombardier in B-24 Liberators in the Pacific. On a search and rescue mission, mechanical difficulties forced Zamperini’s plane to crash in the ocean. After drifting at sea for 47 days, he landed on the Japanese occupied Marshall Islands and was captured. He was taken to a prison camp in Japan where he was tortured. Following the war he initially struggled to overcome his ordeal. Later he became a Christian Evangelist with a strong belief in forgiveness. Zamperini is the subject of two biographical films, the 2014 Unbroken and the 2015 Captured by Grace.

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The movie Unbroken only shares a tiny bit of his story – but it’s still a great place to start learning about this courageous hero!

Check out these inspiring quotes from Louis Zamperini:

“The one who forgives never brings up the past to that person’s face. When you forgive, it’s like it never happened. True forgiveness is complete and total.”
― Louis Zamperini, Devil at My Heels
“I’d made it this far and refused to give up because all my life I had always finished the race.”
― Louis Zamperini, Devil at My Heels
“One moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory.”
― Louis Zamperini
“Yet a part of you still believes you can fight and survive no matter what your mind knows. It’s not so strange. Where there’s still life, there’s still hope. What happens is up to God.”
― Louis Zamperini, Devil at My Heels
“All I want to tell young people is that you’re not going to be anything in life unless you learn to commit to a goal. You have to reach deep within yourself to see if you are willing to make the sacrifices.”
― Louis Zamperini, Devil at My Heels

“Someone who doesn’t make the (Olympic) team might weep and collapse. In my day no one fell on the track and cried like a baby. We lost gracefully. And when someone won, he didn’t act like he’d just become king of the world, either. Athletes in my day were simply humble in our victory.
I believe we were more mature then…Maybe it’s because the media puts so much pressure on athletes; maybe it’s also the money. In my day we competed for the love of the sport…In my day we patted the guy who beat us on the back, wished him well, and that was it.”
― Louis Zamperini, Devil at My Heels
“I think the hardest thing in life is to forgive. Hate is self destructive. If you hate somebody, you’re not hurting the person you hate, you’re hurting yourself. It’s a healing, actually, it’s a real healing…forgiveness.”
― Louis Zamperini

“People tell me, “You’re such an optimist”. Am I an optimist? An optimist says the glass is half full. A pessimist says the glass is half empty. A survivalist is practical. He says, “Call it what you want, but just fill the glass.” I believe in filling the glass.”
― Louis Zamperini
“The great commandment is that we preach the gospel to every creature, but neither God nor the Bible says anything about forcing it down people’s throats.”
― Louis Zamperini, Devil at My Heels

“You only have one life. You should never be too busy to save it.”
― Louis Zamperini, Don’t Give Up, Don’t Give In: Lessons from an Extraordinary Life

“don’t be afraid to make mistakes; they are just the stepping-stones to success.”
― Louis Zamperini, Don’t Give Up, Don’t Give In: Lessons from an Extraordinary Life

“I was raised to face any challenge.”
― Louis Zamperini, Devil at My Heels

“The world, we’d discovered, doesn’t love you like your family loves you.”
― Louis Zamperini, Devil at My Heels

“To live, a man needs food, water, and a sharp mind.”
― Louis Zamperini, Devil at My Heels
“(after asking Christ into his heart) I waited. And then, true to His promise, He came into my heart and my life. The moment was more than remarkable; it was the most realistic experience I’d ever had. I’m not sure what I expected; perhaps my life or my sins or a great white light would flash before my eyes; perhaps I’d feel a shock like being hit by a bolt of lightning. Instead, I felt no tremendous sensation, just a weightlessness and an enveloping calm that let me know that Christ had come into my heart.”
― Louis Zamperini, Devil at My Heels