Given to the Corps of Cadets at West Point He belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues and by his achievements.General Douglas MacArthur’s Farewell Speech He belongs to posterity as the instructor of future generations in the principles of liberty and freedom. He belongs to history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism. He has written his own history and written it in red on his enemy’s breast.īut when I think of his patience under adversity, of his courage under fire, and of his modesty in victory, I am filled with an emotion of admiration I cannot put into words. He needs no eulogy from me, or from any other man. In his youth and strength, his love and loyalty, he gave all that mortality can give. His name and fame are the birthright of every American citizen. I regarded him then, as I regard him now, as one of the world’s noblest figures not only as one of the finest military characters, but also as one of the most stainless. My estimate of him was formed on the battlefieldº many, many years ago, and has never changed. It is the story of the American man at arms. They teach you in this way to be an officer and a gentleman.Īnd what sort of soldiers are those you are to lead? Are they reliable? Are they brave? Are they capable of victory? They create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next, and the joy and inspiration of life. 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, an appetite for adventure over love of ease. They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success not to substitute words for action 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 fall to master yourself 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 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.
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