tough-spirited

Updated: July 20, 2025

Westerners have heard so long of the Sick Man of Europe and his imminent decease that they are likely to associate political with physical weakness, and think that the pale, brooding, official type, familiar in photographs, is the every-day Turk. As a matter of fact, the every-day Turk is tough-bodied and tough-spirited, used to hard living and hard work.

Arthur Ruhl - Antwerp to Gallipoli: A Year of the War on Many Fronts—and Behind Them