Final Public Words and Thoughts
Developed and polished over the course of the last five of his 63 years of public service, Admiral Rickover's final public remarks after his retirement included a lecture in May 1982 at the Morgenthau Memorial Lecture series under the auspices of the Carnegie Council ("The Voice for Ethics in International Policy").
In his lecture, titled Thoughts On Man's Purpose in Life, Rickover presented his crucible, summary comments on the subject for the audience's careful consideration. Drawing upon wide-ranging philosophers and dignitaries such as Voltaire, Emerson, Sir Thomas More, Robert Browning, President Theodore Roosevelt, Justice Louis Brandeis, Aristotle and Martin Luther, as well as extracts from the I Ching, Rickover presented some of the fundamentally guiding thoughts and beliefs that he had acquired during his lifetime.
Rickover's core comments centered around the thoughts that "principles of existence — responsibility, perseverance, excellence, creativity, courage — must be wedded to intellectual growth and development if we are to find meaning and purpose in our lives" and that "a final principle of existence essential to man's purpose in life is the development of standards of ethical and moral conduct."
Earnest in pointing out the triumph of action over thoughts alone, Rickover's comments included the following:
"Man has a large capacity for effort. In fact it is so much greater than we think it is that few ever reach this capacity. We should value the faculty of knowing what we ought to do and having the will to do it. Knowing is easy; it is the doing that is difficult. The critical issue is not what we know but what we do with what we know. The great end of life is not knowledge, but action. I believe that it is the duty of each of us to act as if the fate of the world depended on him ... we must live for the future, not for our own comfort or success."
He closed his remarks at the lecture with a question and answer period that addressed various aspects of Rickover's public service record, opinions, philosophies and anticipation for the future.
Read more about this topic: Hyman G. Rickover
Famous quotes containing the words final, public, words and/or thoughts:
“Remember the waterfront shack with the sign FRESH FISH SOLD HERE. Of course it’s fresh, we’re on the ocean. Of course it’s for sale, we’re not giving it away. Of course it’s here, otherwise the sign would be someplace else. The final sign: FISH.”
—Peggy Noonan (b. 1950)
“The Kid had a lurking devil in him ... It was a good-humored, jovial imp, or a cruel and blood-thirsty fiend, as circumstances prompted. He always laughed when killing, but fire seemed to dart from his eyes.”
—State of New Mexico, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“On a few words of what is real in the world
I nourish myself. I defend myself against
Whatever remains.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Others apart sat on a Hill retir’d,
In thoughts more elevate, and reason’d high
Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate,
Fixt Fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,
And found no end, in wandring mazes lost.
Of good and evil much they argu’d then,
Of happiness and final misery,
Passion and Apathie, and glory and shame,
Vain wisdom all, and false Philosophie:”
—John Milton (1608–1674)