Ch 8 – Too Much Focus on Things, Not Enough Focus on Commitment
Commitment and boldness – these are among the things that truly matter, the things by which we can measure our lives, the things that help turn providence in our favor. Their reach goes far beyond how we earn our living, for never forget that none of us lives by bread alone. P 189
Ch 9 – Too Many Twenty-First Century Values, Not Enough Eighteenth-Century Values
But I fear too, that this pathological mutation has spread more broadly across society, into the texture of so many of our lives. With Wikipedia at our fingertips and Google waiting online to serve us, we are surrounded by information, but increasingly cut off from knowledge. Facts (or, more often, factoids) are everywhere. But wisdom – the kind of wisdom that was rife in the age of this nation’s Founding Fathers – is in short supply…To paraphrase Neil Postman’s essential message, soon we shall know everything that doesn’t count, and nothing that does. P 195-196
Ch 10 – Too Much “Success”, Not Enough Character
So what are we to make of all of these mixed measures of success? Just this: Success cannot be measured solely – or even primarily – in monetary term, nor in terms of the amount of power one may exercise over others, nor in the illusory fame of inevitably transitory public notice. But it can be measured in our contributions to building a better world, in helping our fellow man, and in raising children who themselves become loving human beings and good citizens. Success, in short, can be measured not in what we attain for ourselves, but in what we contribute to our society. P 217
No career is the right career if it is undertaken solely to get rich, or to gain public fame, or to throw one’s weight around. Nor is it the right career if it is undertaken to meet the expectations of others. And no success is the right success if it is achieved at society’s expense. The proper measure? Your own expectations, and making the most of your talents. P 218
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