Sublime

alone.”4 Strong families are essential to free societies. Where families are strong, a sense of altruism exists that can be extended outward, from family to friends, to neighbours, to community, and from there to the nation as a whole.

réseau. Bill Millikan, fondateur de l’association Communities in Schools, était un soir du nombre des convives. Il est aujourd’hui septuagénaire. « Je travaille dans le domaine depuis quarante-cinq ans, dit-il, et je n’ai jamais vu un programme changer la moindre vie. Seules les relations changent des vies. »

do work that is heroic—that staggers your marketplace by the quality of its originality as well as from the helpfulness it provides.

People glorify all sorts of bravery except the bravery they might show on behalf of their nearest neighbors.”

“That which isn’t good for the hive, isn’t good for the bee.” —MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 6.54

The people closest to me determine my level of success or failure. The better they are, the better I am.

Aristotle also felt strongly that virtue requires action; mere noble intentions are not enough. We are social creatures; a solitary life is not worth living. Our personal happiness, then, was linked to the welfare of the community. With a population consisting of individuals engaged with thinking and discriminating and working out for themselves

to be unselfish to—whether it was only your own family, or your fellow countrymen, or every one. But they have always agreed that you ought not to put yourself first. Selfishness has never been admired.”10 Until now, perhaps—and much to our detriment.

nothing motivates me more than trying to be that person for others. I am inspired by what the writer Leo Rosten once argued was the purpose of life: “to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”⁠