In honor of The Liberator on the anniversary of his death, one of RC2's favorite of his speeches. Given at a Citadel commencement after he left office.
". . .the character that takes command in moments of crucial choices has already been determined.
It has been determined by a thousand other choices made earlier in seemingly unimportant moments. It has been determined by all the little choices of years past—by all those times when the voice of conscience was at war with the voice of temptation—whispering the lie that it really doesn't matter. It has been determined by all the day-to-day decisions made when life seemed easy and crises seemed far away—the decisions that, piece by piece, bit by bit, developed habits of discipline or of laziness, habits of self-sacrifice or of self-indulgence, habits of duty and honor and integrity—or dishonor and shame.
Because when life does get tough, and the crisis is undeniably at hand—when we must, in an instant look inward for strength of character to see us through—we will find nothing inside ourselves that we have not already put there."
Do, as we bloggers say, read the whole thing.
Subscribe to:
Comment Feed (RSS)
