ARMED WITH THE WEAPONS OF EXCELLENCE, DIGNITY, AND ENDURANCE
EXPLORING AND THE AWESOME POTENTIAL OF BEING HUMAN
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ARMED WITH THE WEAPONS OF EXCELLENCE, DIGNITY, AND ENDURANCE |
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EXPLORING AND THE AWESOME POTENTIAL OF BEING HUMAN |
A Value System for Life Derived from World Heroes
16 Attributes with Hero Quotations
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Attributes with Quotations from our Selected Heroes 1. (Behavior) Govern yourself by never allowing another’s behavior to negatively influence your conduct. Your actions are always your responsibility; they are never another’s fault. Determine your behavior from your vales, from the kind of person you want to be - never from how others behave toward you.
Do not
allow your anger to control your reason, but rather your reason to
control your anger.
I have
learned through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve
my anger, and as heat conserved is transmitted into energy, even so
our anger controlled can be transmitted into a power that can move
the world.
Each one has to find his peace from
within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside
circumstances.
A
strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm,
thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand
to others. It's a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave
with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of
insecurity.
Each day is a continued battle for
our control; not for our control over others, but for control of our
response to them.
If a man
is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as
Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare
wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of
heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived …
We have the power to guide and
encourage what is meant to be.
I think one's feelings waste
themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions
which bring results.
2. (Change) Encourage positive change, not through criticism, but through your continuous achievements of excellence for all to witness. When criticized by others, offer continual examples of excellence as your only response.
We must be the change you wish to
see in the world.
An
ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.
We have learned that change cannot
come through war. War is not a feasible tool to use in fighting
against the oppression we face. War has caused more problems. We
cannot embrace that path.
Example is not the main thing in
influencing others, it is the only thing.
Do
something wonderful, people may imitate it.
We must
reinforce argument with results.
Do what
you feel in your heart to be right. You'll be criticized anyway.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
It is better to lead from behind and
to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when
nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger.
Then people will appreciate your leadership.
Each person must live their life as
a model for others.
3. (Vision) Envision things as wonderful they can be, not as they are, and then strive to create positive change toward these envisioned goals. All great accomplishments started as a vision in someone’s imagination, a vision that others could not see.
4. (Obstacles) Realize that obstacles are not impediments to your goals, but challenges enriched with the rewards of self-confidence and wisdom, welcomed opportunities for growth, and occasions to learn and master new skills. A person having reached a goal without overcoming obstacles has learned nothing and accomplished even less. Conquered obstacles are the qualifying credentials of heroes and a measure of one's commitment and leadership.
I have
learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position
that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has
overcome while trying to succeed.
All
progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us
face to face with another problem.
One who
gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength
which can overcome adversity.
Anyone
who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of
his way, but must accept his lot calmly, even if they roll a few
stones upon it.
You must do the thing you think you
cannot do.
After
climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills
to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the
glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I
have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes
responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet
ended.
The greatest glory in living lies
not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
In the
middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
Do not fear the winds of adversity.
Remember: A kite rises against the wind rather than with it. 5. (Self-esteem) Enhance your self-esteem, not from the opinions of others, but from your values, from your abilities, from the compassionate causes you have chosen to embrace, and from the magnitudes of commitment you have expended toward their resolve.
No one
can make you feel inferior without your consent.
As human
beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the
world -- that is the myth of the atomic age -- as in being able to
remake ourselves.
The ultimate test of a man is not
where he stands in moments of comfort and moments of convenience,
but where he stands in moments of challenge and moments of
controversy.
I knew someone had to take the first
step and I made up my mind not to move. 6. (Character) Without regard to consequences, courageously fulfill the obligations of being human by respecting all life, defending the righteous, promoting peace, inspiring compassion, spreading joy, and sharing your assets[1] with those less fortunate.
As a human being, possessing
education, talent, and recourses obligates you to help others less
fortunate.
The older
I get, the greater power I seem to have to help the world; I am like
a snowball -- the further I am rolled the more I gain.
When will our consciences grow so
tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge
it?
Helping
people in need is a good and essential part of my life, a kind of
destiny.
I was
determined to achieve the total freedom that our history lessons
taught us we were entitled to, no matter what the sacrifice.
One thing
I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those
who will have sought and found how to serve.
Whoever
is spared personal pain must feel himself called to help in
diminishing the pain of others. We must all carry our share of the
misery which lies upon the world.
The best way to find yourself is to
lose yourself in the service of others.
Non-violence…it is not a weapon of the weak. It is a
weapon of the strongest and bravest.
How far you go in life depends on
you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged,
sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the
strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.
If you are neutral
in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the
oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and
you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your
neutrality.
...instead of giving a rifle to
somebody, build a school; instead of giving a rifle, build a
community with adequate services. Instead of giving a rifle, develop
an educational system that is not about conflict and violence, but
one that promotes respect for values, for life, and respect for
one's elders. This requires a huge investment. Yet if we can invest
in a different vision of peaceful coexistence, I think we can change
the world, because every problem has a nonviolent answer.
Silence in the face
of injustice is complicity with the oppressor. Contrary
to what certain governments say, human rights are universal.
Arbitrary detention, torture and discrimination hurt the human
dignity of anybody, whatever his or her country of origin, religion,
descent, or any other ground.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Character is power.
Not
taking sides in concerns of human misery and injustice is taking a
side. Not making a decision concerning action
against human misery and injustice is making a decision. No one may
remain neutral in such circumstances. 7. (Courage) Honor and respect fear, for it alone offers you an opportunity to demonstrate courage.
I learned that courage was not the
absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he
who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
There would be nothing to frighten
you if you refused to be afraid.
Forgiveness is a virtue of the
brave.
You gain
strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you
really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to
yourself, "I live through this horror. I can take the next thing
that comes along." . . . You must do the thing you must do the ting
you think you cannot do.
I believe that anyone can conquer
fear by doing the things he fears to do.
The purpose of life, after all, is
to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly
and without fear for newer and richer experiences. The
ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of
comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge
and controversy. Any
intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more
violent. It takes a touch of genius, and a lot of courage, to move
in the opposite direction.
The only battles we will ever fight
are the ones inside us.
If you fear making anyone
mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of
human achievement. 8. (Commitment) Welcome temptations and other choices, for without alternatives your "commitments" have no meaning. Leaders earn trust from perseverance and honoring commitments. Never give up. Most perceived failures are not failures at all, but instead successfully completed stepping stones toward the completion of a goal. The only time you can fail is if you quit.
A man is but the product of his
thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.
You must do the thing you think you
cannot do.
Failure is impossible.
I think
and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is
false. The hundredth time I am right.
The
Tuskegee Airmen had an eleventh commandment, “We will not quit, no
matter what!”
The only time we can fail is if we
quit. Most perceived failures are only stepping stones being small
problems encountered along the path to a goal. Obstacles are
opportunities for growth, therefore, encourage and embrace them.
The probability that we may fail in
struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we
believe to be just.
99% of the failures come from people
who have the habit of making excuses.
You can
do what you have to do, and sometimes you can do it even better than
you think you can.
9. (Trust) Honor all commitments and obligations to everyone regardless of their stature. Your pledge should be as meaningful to a king as to a beggar, for the value of a commitment is determined from its source, not to whom it is directed.
10. (Conflict) While engaging your adversaries, always maintain their dignity. This is the only road to lasting peace.
Unless
both sides win, no agreement can be permanent.
Am I not destroying my enemies when
I make friends of them?
Man must
evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge,
aggression, and retaliation.
The method of nonviolence seeks not
to humiliate and not to defeat the oppressor, but it seeks to win
his friendship and his understanding. And thereby and therefore the
aftermath of this method is reconciliation.
An eye for eye only ends up making
the whole world blind. The weak
can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
I object to violence because when it
appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is
permanent.
Courtesy
towards opponents and eagerness to understand their view-point is
the ABC of non-violence.
It has always been a mystery to me
how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their
fellow beings.
I think that nonviolence is one way
of saying that there are other ways to solve problems, not only
through weapons and war. Nonviolence also means the recognition that
the person on one side of the trench and the person on the other
side of the trench are both human beings, with the same faculties.
At some point they have to begin to understand one another. You
cannot prepare for war and peace at the same time.
Peace cannot be achieved through
violence, it can only be attained through understanding.
If you want to make peace with your
enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your
partner. 11. (Contentment) Enjoy your journeys more than your victories, for your journeys occupy all your life - your victories but a moment.
12. (Readiness) Protect your abilities and senses from limiting influences,[2] thus staying alert and in readiness for all of life’s challenges and unexpected encounters.
The difference between what we do
and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the
world's problems.
Not to
have control over the senses is like sailing in a rudderless ship,
bound to break to pieces on coming in contact with the very first
rock.
The
significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of
thinking with which we created them.
You are
never strong enough that you don't need help.
13. (Compassion) Give simply to increase the amount of goodness in the world - often without recognition or reward. Give more to others than you receive in return, and carefully sustain this inequity, with humility, as a distinctive characteristic of your leadership.
Don't worry
when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.
Give of yourself to increase the amount
of goodness in the world, not to received recognition from others for
your deeds.
There should
be less talk; a preaching point is not a meeting point. What do you do
then? Take a broom and clean someone's house. That says enough.
Everybody can be great, because anybody
can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't
have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart
full of grace. A soul generated by love.
I have always
held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring
some portion of misery to an end.
A man is ethical only when life, as such,
is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men,
and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of
help.
Until he
extends his circle of compassion to all living things, man will not find
peace.
Compassion, in
which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and
depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to
mankind.
I am prepared
to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.
One man cannot hold
another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with
him.
Like music and
art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or
social boundaries.
14. (Judging) Observe, but never judge. Seek out the differences in others and then celebrate them, for such diversity [iii] is the true potpourri of humanity and will enrich you with the knowledge and wisdom of the entire human experience.
The greatest
problem in the world today is intolerance. Everyone is so intolerant of
each other.
An optimist
is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees
only the red stoplight. . . The truly wise person is color-blind.
We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people,
different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different
dreams.
...when we allow one group of people to
look down upon another, then we may for a short time bring hardship on
some particular group of people, but the real hardship and the real
wrong is done to democracy and to our nation as a whole. We are then
breeding people who cannot live under a democratic form of government
but must be controlled by force. We have but to look out into the world
to see how easy it is to be come stultified, to accept without protest
wrongs done to others, and to shift the burden of decision and
responsibility for an y action onto some vague thing called a government
or some individual called a leader.
The most
underutilized and ignored assets and the most valuable assets of any
organization are the same - the diversity* of its people.
I shall never
permit myself to stoop so low as to hate any man.
Freedom is
not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my
comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able,
can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.
I look to a
day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by
the content of their character. Whoever
undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and
knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods. If you judge
people, you have no time to love them.
Preservation
of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other
cultures. 15. (Recognition) Serve enthusiastically as a witness and spokesperson for the accomplishments, talents, and concerns of others. An attentive leader is committed to his/her people and communicates the issues, ideas, and achievements of those less able to speak for themselves and gives ample recognition for their origin.
There are two ways of exerting one's
strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.
If you want
to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.
He who can no
longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe; is as good as dead; his
eyes are closed.
Everyone
needs to be valued. Everyone has the potential to give something back.
I’ve always thought that people need to
feel good about themselves and I see my role as offering support to
them, to provide some light along the way.
We should be too big to take offense and
too noble to give it.
We can work together for a better world
with men and women of goodwill, those who radiate the intrinsic goodness
of humankind. To do so effectively, the world needs a global ethic with
values which give meaning to life experiences and, more than religious
institutions and dogmas, sustain the non-material dimension of humanity.
Mankind's universal values of love, compassion, solidarity, caring and
tolerance should form the basis for this global ethic which should
permeate culture, politics, trade, religion and philosophy. It should
also permeate the extended family of the United Nations. 16. (Values) Uphold this Value System, especially under adverse conditions, not to please someone else, but to honor the unfaltering principles within you, to validate your character as the type of person you want to be, and to gradually realize the full potential of being human.
Ethics, too,
are nothing but reverence for life. That is what gives me the
fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in
maintaining, promoting, and enhancing life, and that destroying,
injuring, and limiting life are evil.
Try not to
become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.
A man is the
sum of his actions, of what he has done, of what he can do, Nothing
else.
One man cannot do right in one
department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other
department. Life is one indivisible whole.
In matters of conscience, the Law of
Majority has no place.
Being constantly in the public eye
gives me a special responsibility, particularly that of using the impact
of photographs to transmit a message, to sensitize the word to an
important cause, to defend certain values.
The value systems of those with access
to power and of those far removed from such access cannot be the same.
The viewpoint of the privileged is unlike that of the underprivileged.
There is a perpetual battle in your
heart between Good and Evil. Which one will win this conflict? The one
you feed. [1]assets = One’s strength, capacity to help, capacity to protect, capacity to defend, and capacity to rescue. One’s abilities, education, talents, insight, wisdom, labor, knowledge, wealth, belongings, property, and any similar thing that can be utilized to bring benefit to another. (Arthur Saunders, Tuskegee Airmen) [2] limiting influences = anger, frustration, revenge, alcohol, drugs, poor diet, poor physical or mental conditioning, lack of alertness, negative attitude, over aggressiveness, idleness, etc. [iii] diversity = one’s abilities, interests, talents, experiences, beliefs, customs, culture, points-of-view, rituals, influences, networks, assets, and any beneficial characteristic distinguishing one person from another.
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