Duty, Country, Honor
by General Douglas MacArthur

Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently 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...these are some of the things they do. They build your basic
character. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the
nation's defense. 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 fail; to master yourself before
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
too 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, of 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. They teach you in this way to be
an officer and a gentleman.