Thoughts on Man's Purpose in Life

He quotes Voltaire, Sir Thomas More and Theodore Roosevelt, refers to Aristotle and Luther, and presents extracts from the I Ching... from the grave.

Admiral H.G. Rickover, known as the Father of the Nuclear Navy, lectured at the Morgenthau Memorial Lecture series some time ago under the auspices of the Carnegie Council, the Voice for Ethics in International Policy, but his vision of man's purpose and passion resonates into the Cosmos.

He expounds in his lecture, Thoughts on Man's Purpose in Life, about the principles of existence, principles that have been debated for thousands of years by philosophers and common men.

Essentially, they are these

• Responsibility. It forces man to become involved.
• Perseverance. Without perseverance, ambition and sense of responsibility evaporate.
• Excellence. Happiness comes from the full use of one's power to achieve excellence.
• Creativity. To create you must care. You must have courage to speak out.
• Courage. To have courage means to pursue your goals and to satisfy your responsibilities, even though others may stand in the way...

The great end of life is not knowledge, but action.

"It is not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled, or how the doer of deeds might have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat, and dust, and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms; the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, if he wins, knows the triumphs of high achievement; and who, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt, Man in the Arena

And finally, Admiral Rickover leaves us with this:

"To seek and accept responsibility, to persevere, to be committed to excellence, to be creative and courageous, to be unrelenting in the pursuit of intellectual development, to maintain high standards of ethics and morality, and to bring these basic principles of existence to bear through active participation in life—these are some of my ideas on the goals that must be met to achieve meaning and purpose in life."

Admiral Hyman George Rickover
Thoughts on Man's Purpose in Life
Carnegie Council