HonorCountry
dictate what you ought to be,
What you can be, What you will be.
They are your rallying points:
to build courage when courage seems to fail;
to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith;
to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.
They build your basic character, they make you strong
enough to know when you are weak,
and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid.
They teach you to be proud and unbending
in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success;
not to substitute words for actions,
not to seek the path of comfort,
but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge;
to learn to stand up in the storm
but to have compassion on those who fall;
to master yourself before you seek to master others;
to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high;
to learn to laugh yet never forget how to weep;
to reach into the future yet never neglect the past;
to be serious yet never to take yourself seriously;
to be modest so that you will remember
the simplicity of true greatness,
the open mind of true wisdom,
the meekness of true strength.
They give you a temper of the will,
a quality of the Imagination, a vigor of the emotions,
a freshness of the deep springs of life,
a temperamental predominance of courage
over timidity, an appetite for adventure over love of ease.
They create in your heart the sense of wonder,
The unfailing hope of what next, and the joy
and inspiration of life.
by
General Douglas MacArthur
| Site Map of Life in the Slow Lane |
