High honors have come my way, but I shall always believe that my greatest honor was being a West Point graduate. The Military Academy has taught me many things, some of them not within the covers of books or written by any man. The first of these is tolerance: not to debase or deprive those from whom one may differ by character or custom, by race or color or distinction. The second is balance: a sense of proportion and ability to put first things first. A realization that there is a time and place for everything, but a recognition of the old maxim "nothing too much"- what the ancients meant by the "golden mean". The third is intelligence, rather than sentiment or emotion. Sentimentalism has muddled many problems, has settled none. Intellect is a man's only hope for improvement over his present state. And last, but by no means least, is courage: moral courage- the courage of one's convictions- the courage to see a thing through. This is not easy. The world is in constant conspiracy against the brave. It is the age-old struggle of the roar of the crowd on one side and the voice of your conscience on the other. Tolerance, balance, intelligence, courage. These should be the hallmarks of every graduate of the Military Academy at West Point.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "High honors have come my way, but I shall always believe that my greatest honor was being a West Point graduate. The Military Academy has taught me many things, some of them not within the covers of books or written by any man. The first of these is tolerance: not to debase or deprive those from whom one may differ by character or custom, by race or color or distinction. The second is balance: a sense of proportion and ability to put first things first. A realization that there is a time and place for everything, but a recognition of the old maxim "nothing too much"- what the ancients meant by the "golden mean". The third is intelligence, rather than sentiment or emotion. Sentimentalism has muddled many problems, has settled none. Intellect is a man's only hope for improvement over his present state. And last, but by no means least, is courage: moral courage- the courage of one's convictions- the courage to see a thing through. This is not easy. The world is in constant conspiracy against the brave. It is the age-old struggle of the roar of the crowd on one side and the voice of your conscience on the other. Tolerance, balance, intelligence, courage. These should be the hallmarks of every graduate of the Military Academy at West Point." in the context of "Douglas MacArthur, USMA Class of 1903, remarks to a delegation of cadets from the United States Military Academy at West Point on the occasion of MacArthur's eighty-fourth birthday, on January 26, 1964. Since MacArthur's retirement from active duty in 1952, West Point had maintained a tradition of sending cadets to visit MacArthur on his birthday each year. Their visit in 1964 was the last. As quoted in A Soldier Speaks: Public Papers and Speeches of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur (1965), edited by Vorin E. Whan, Jr., p. 366-367" to mean that wisdom is timeless.