integrity
If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, like Shakespeare wrote poetry, like Beethoven composed music; sweep streets so well that all the host of Heaven and earth will have to pause and say, “Here lived a great street sweeper, who swept his job well.”
“Facing the Challenge of a New Age,” in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. (New York: HarperCollins, 1991), 139.
It’s easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time. If you give in to “just this once,” based on a marginal cost analysis, as some of my former classmates have done, you’ll regret where you end up. You’ve got to define for yourself what you stand for and draw the line in a safe place.
“How Will You Measure Your Life?,” Harvard Business Review, July 1, 2010.
Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people.
“How Will You Measure Your Life?,” Harvard Business Review, July 1, 2010.