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An excerpt from MacArthur's Thayer Award Acceptance Address at West Point .
"Duty, Honor, Country:
Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.
They are your rallying points:
to build courage when courage seems to fail;
to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith;
to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.
Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell you all that they mean.
The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase.
Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker,
and I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule.
But these are some of the things they do.
They build your basic character.
They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation's defense.
They make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid.
They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success;
not to substitute words for actions, 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 to 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.
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, of an appetite for adventure over love of ease.
They create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next,
and the joy and inspiration of life.
They teach you in this way to be an officer and a gentleman.".......................
And what sort of soldiers are those you are to lead? Are they reliable? Are they brave? Are they capable of victory? Their story is known to all of you. It is the story of the American man-at-arms. My estimate of him was formed on the battlefield many, many years ago, and has never changed. 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. His name and fame are the birthright of every American citizen. In his youth and strength, his love and loyalty, he gave all that mortality can give.
He needs no eulogy from me or from any other man. He has written his own history and written it in red on his enemy's breast. But 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 belongs to history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism. He belongs to posterity as the instructor of future generations in the principles of liberty and freedom. He belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues and by his achievements. In 20 campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires, I have witnessed that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self-abnegation, and that invincible determination which have carved his statue in the hearts of his people. From one end of the world to the other he has drained deep the chalice of courage.
As I listened to those songs [of the glee club], in memory's eye I could see those staggering columns of the First World War, bending under soggy packs, on many a weary march from dripping dusk to drizzling dawn, slogging ankle-deep through the mire of shell-shocked roads, to form grimly for the attack, blue-lipped, covered with sludge and mud, chilled by the wind and rain, driving home to their objective, and for many, to the judgment seat of God.
I do not know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of their death.
They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory.
Always, for them: Duty, Honor, Country; always their blood and sweat and tears, as we sought the way and the light and the truth.
And 20 years after, on the other side of the globe, again the filth of murky foxholes, the stench of ghostly trenches, the slime of dripping dugouts; those boiling suns of relentless heat, those torrential rains of devastating storms; the loneliness and utter desolation of jungle trails; the bitterness of long separation from those they loved and cherished; the deadly pestilence of tropical disease; the horror of stricken areas of war; their resolute and determined defense, their swift and sure attack, their indomitable purpose, their complete and decisive victory -- always victory. Always through the bloody haze of their last reverberating shot, the vision of gaunt, ghastly men reverently following your password of: Duty, Honor, Country.
The code which those words perpetuate embraces the highest moral laws and will stand the test of any ethics or philosophies ever promulgated for the uplift of mankind. Its requirements are for the things that are right, and its restraints are from the things that are wrong.
The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training -- sacrifice.
In battle and in the face of danger and death, he discloses those divine attributes which his Maker gave when he created man in his own image. No physical courage and no brute instinct can take the place of the Divine help which alone can sustain him.
However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind.
You now face a new world -- a world of change. The thrust into outer space of the satellite, spheres, and missiles mark the beginning of another epoch in the long story of mankind. In the five or more billions of years the scientists tell us it has taken to form the earth, in the three or more billion years of development of the human race, there has never been a more abrupt or staggering evolution. We deal now not with things of this world alone, but with the illimitable distances and as yet unfathomed mysteries of the universe. We are reaching out for a new and boundless frontier.
We speak in strange terms: of harnessing the cosmic energy; of making winds and tides work for us; of creating unheard synthetic materials to supplement or even replace our old standard basics; to purify sea water for our drink; of mining ocean floors for new fields of wealth and food; of disease preventatives to expand life into the hundreds of years; of controlling the weather for a more equitable distribution of heat and cold, of rain and shine; of space ships to the moon; of the primary target in war, no longer limited to the armed forces of an enemy, but instead to include his civil populations; of ultimate conflict between a united human race and the sinister forces of some other planetary galaxy; of such dreams and fantasies as to make life the most exciting of all time.
And through all this welter of change and development, your mission remains fixed, determined, inviolable: it is to win our wars.
Everything else in your professional career is but corollary to this vital dedication. All other public purposes, all other public projects, all other public needs, great or small, will find others for their accomplishment. But you are the ones who are trained to fight. Yours is the profession of arms, the will to win, the sure knowledge that in war there is no substitute for victory; that if you lose, the nation will be destroyed; that the very obsession of your public service must be: Duty, Honor, Country.
Others will debate the controversial issues, national and international, which divide men's minds; but serene, calm, aloof, you stand as the Nation's war-guardian, as its lifeguard from the raging tides of international conflict, as its gladiator in the arena of battle. For a century and a half you have defended, guarded, and protected its hallowed traditions of liberty and freedom, of right and justice.
Let civilian voices argue the merits or demerits of our processes of government; whether our strength is being sapped by deficit financing, indulged in too long, by federal paternalism grown too mighty, by power groups grown too arrogant, by politics grown too corrupt, by crime grown too rampant, by morals grown too low, by taxes grown too high, by extremists grown too violent; whether our personal liberties are as thorough and complete as they should be. These great national problems are not for your professional participation or military solution. Your guidepost stands out like a ten-fold beacon in the night: Duty, Honor, Country.
You are the leaven which binds together the entire fabric of our national system of defense. From your ranks come the great captains who hold the nation's destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds. The Long Gray Line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.
This does not mean that you are war mongers.
On the contrary, the soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.
But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: "Only the dead have seen the end of war."
The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished, tone and tint. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears, and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen vainly, but with thirsty ears, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield.
But in the evening of my memory, always I come back to West Point .
Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country.
Today marks my final roll call with you, but I want you to know that when I cross the river my last conscious thoughts will be of The Corps, and The Corps, and The Corps.
I bid you farewell.
陳定南譯：
責任、榮譽、國家。
這三個神聖的口號，莊嚴的指出你們要做的，你們能做的，你們將做的。
這是你們振作的起點，
當勇氣快消失的時候，由此建立起勇氣；
當信心快失去的時候，由此恢復起信心；
當希望將渺茫的時候，由此點燃起希望。
懊惱的是：我既沒有流利的詞句，詩人的幻想，又缺少生動的比喻，來向大家說明它們的意義。
沒有信仰的人們會說：這不過是空話，不過是口號，不過是華麗的詞藻而已。
每一個徒尚空談的人，每一個政客，每一個犬儒之徒，每一個偽君子，每一個惹事生非的人，還有，我很遺憾的說，一些完全與我們不同品格的人，將試圖把它們貶損到甚至虛偽與可笑的程度。
但是，它們卻自有其建樹。
它們建立了你們的人格。
它們將你們陶冶得足以擔當未來的任務 作為保護這個國家的衛士。
它們使你們在軟弱時能夠堅強不屈，畏懼時能夠有勇氣面對自己。
它們教你在公平的失敗中要自豪而不屈，成功時卻要謙遜而溫和；
實踐力行而不徒尚空談；
面對困難和挑戰的刺激與壓迫而不尋求逸樂；
學著怎樣在風雨中站立起來，卻同情那些跌倒的人們；
要自制而後制人；
心靈要純潔，目標要高尚；
學著歡笑，但永不忘記如何哭泣；
勇往直前，但不忽略過去；
舉止莊重，但不過份嚴肅；
要謙沖為懷，才能記住真正偉大的單純；
要有真知的頭腦，也要有實力的謙和。
它們可以給你們一種穩健的意志，幻想的氣質，強烈的感情，生命的潛力，
克服怯懦的優越氣勢，捨棄逸樂而偏愛冒險的慾求。
它們在你心裡建立起好奇的意識，永不熄滅的進取的希望，以及生命的愉悅與啟示。
它們就這樣教你作為一個軍官 和 君子。........
你要統率哪一種士兵呢？他們可靠嗎？他們勇敢嗎？他們能獲勝嗎？他們的故事，你們都知道。那是美國戰士的故事。我對他們的印象，建立於許多許多年以前的戰場上，而且從未改變。他們是世界上最高尚的人物，過去我認為如此，現在我仍認為如此；不僅認為他們是最優秀的軍事人員，同時也認為他們是最純潔的。
他們的名望與聲譽，是每一個美國公民與生俱來的權利。在他們年輕力壯的時候，他們奉獻出了人類所能奉獻的熱愛與忠誠。他們無需我來褒揚，也不需要別人的讚頌。他們已寫下了他們自己的歷史，血淋淋的寫在敵人的胸膛上……
在二十次戰役中，在一百個戰場上，在一千次營火裡，我曾親眼看到那永恒的堅毅，那忘我的愛國忠誠，以及那無敵的決心，這些氣質已使他們同胞的心上刻下了他們的影像。從天涯到海角，他們曾深深的乾了勇氣之杯。
每當我聽著那些紀念的歌聲，我眼中的記憶就浮現，第一次大戰中那些蹣跚的行列，背負著潮濕的背包，疲憊的跋涉長途，從落雨的黃昏到細雨的黎明，在彈痕斑斑泥淖四佈的道路上淹沒了腳踝；淒涼地準備攻擊，嘴唇發青，滿身泥濘，在風雨中顫抖著，奔向目標，而就有許多人，到上帝的座下接受審判去了。
我不知他們生時的尊嚴，但我深知他們死時的榮耀。他們毫不遲疑的死去，毫不抱怨的死去，滿懷信心的死去，口角上仍掛著希望，希望我們繼續爭取到勝利。他們一直信奉的是：責任、榮譽、國家。總是他們的血汗淚流，為我們開啟了道路與光明。
而二十年後，在地球的另一邊，再度是骯髒的散兵坑，惡臭的陰溝，泥濘的戰壕，灼熱的太陽，傾盆的豪雨，森林小徑的寂寞與全然隔絕，那些被愛著的人們長期分離的痛苦，熱帶致命的疫癘，戰區襲擊的恐怖。他們那堅強的防禦，他們那迅速而準確的攻擊，他們那不屈的意志，他們那完全而確定的勝利──總會勝利，總是經由 最後反擊流血的朦朧。那些憔悴蒼白的人們，虔敬的追隨著你們的口號：責任、榮譽、國家。
你們現在面對著一個新的世界，一個變動的世界。衛星和飛彈的進入太空，標明了悠久的人類歷史中另一個時代的開始—太空紀元。科學家告訴我們，費了五十億或者更多的年月，才形成了地球；在三十億或者更多的年月中，才發展出了人類，再沒有比現在的進展更突然而更巨大的了！我們現在不僅要處理世界上的事物，同時要探討宇宙中無限的距離與尚未發現的秘密。我們現 在正邁向一個沒有邊際的新境界。
我們談著奇怪的詞語，談著利用宇宙能，談著呼風喚雨…所談的戰爭基本目標，不限於敵人的軍隊，而同時也包抱敵人的民眾在內；談著人類與另一個星球上邪惡勢力的最後衡突；諸如此類的美夢與幻想，已使我們的生命空前的令人振奮。
在所有這些發展與變化之中，你們的任務仍是不變的，堅定的，神聖的，那就是：打贏我們的戰爭。你們事業中的其他一切，都是為了完成這一重大奉獻。所有其他的 共同目的，所有其他的共同計劃，所有其他的共同需要，不論大的或小的，自會有人完成；但你們卻是受訓練來作戰的。你們的職業是軍事，你們的意志是戰勝，你們要知道：在戰爭中，勝利是沒有代替品的；如果你們失敗，國家就要滅亡；你們服務大眾的基本信條就是：責任、榮譽、國家。
其他的人，自會去辯論爭議性的國內與國際事端。但你們卻要沉著的，鎮靜的，超然的，站在保衛國家的崗位上，在國際糾紛的狂流中作國家的救生員，在戰場上作國家的鬥士。一 個半世紀以來，你們已經保衛了，防禦了，護持了它那自由與獨立、公理與正義的神聖傳統。讓文人們去爭辯政府措施的良窳，我們國力的衰微，是否由於長期赤字的負累？聯邦專制主義者的坐大？權力集團的猖狂？政治的過份腐化？罪惡的過份猖獗？民心的過於低落？租稅的過份提高或極端份子的過份狂暴？
另外，我們的個人自由是否像應有的那麼確定而完整？這些國家大事，無需你們這一行介入，也不必使用武力解決。路標正如同夜間十倍亮度的燈塔一般，豎立在那裡，指引著你們的方向—責任、榮譽、國家。
你們是將我們整個國防系統納入一體的操縱桿。從你們的行列中，產生出偉大的將領，在戰鐘響時，掌握國家的命運，西點軍校的同學們從未使我們失望過。如果你們要那樣做，就會有一百萬個幽靈，穿著草綠色的呢衣，穿著棕色的、藍色的、灰色的卡其，從白十字架上跳出來，怒吼著喊出神魔般的銘語：責任、榮譽、國家！
這並不是說你們都是好戰之徒。正好相反，軍人比別人更祈求和平，因為他們必須承受戰爭的最深創傷與疤痕。我們的耳際常會響起聖哲柏拉圖的名言：「祇有死者曾經看到戰爭的結局。」
我已老耄，黃昏已至。我的老年已快結束，聲音與顏色都漸黯淡。它們經由往事的夢境而漸漸消逝。它們的回味是奇美的，有淚水的滋潤，也有昨日微笑的撫慰。
那時到來，我會急切的聽著，聽著那迷人的起床號音，聽著那遙遠的召集鼓聲。在我的夢中，我再度聽到槍枝的撞擊聲，步槍的響聲，戰場上奇異而悲傷的低語。
在我夢境的黃昏，我又回到了西點軍校。那裡總是一再迴響著：責任、榮譽、國家！
今天是我最後一次校閱你們。但是我要你們知道，當我渡過這條河的時候，我的內心深處仍將思念著西點軍校的同學們，同學們，同學們！
現在我向你們道別了。
"Duty, Honor, Country:
Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.
They are your rallying points:
to build courage when courage seems to fail;
to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith;
to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.
Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell you all that they mean.
The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase.
Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker,
and I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule.
But these are some of the things they do.
They build your basic character.
They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation's defense.
They make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid.
They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success;
not to substitute words for actions, 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 to 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.
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, of an appetite for adventure over love of ease.
They create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next,
and the joy and inspiration of life.
They teach you in this way to be an officer and a gentleman.".......................
And what sort of soldiers are those you are to lead? Are they reliable? Are they brave? Are they capable of victory? Their story is known to all of you. It is the story of the American man-at-arms. My estimate of him was formed on the battlefield many, many years ago, and has never changed. 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. His name and fame are the birthright of every American citizen. In his youth and strength, his love and loyalty, he gave all that mortality can give.
He needs no eulogy from me or from any other man. He has written his own history and written it in red on his enemy's breast. But 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 belongs to history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism. He belongs to posterity as the instructor of future generations in the principles of liberty and freedom. He belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues and by his achievements. In 20 campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires, I have witnessed that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self-abnegation, and that invincible determination which have carved his statue in the hearts of his people. From one end of the world to the other he has drained deep the chalice of courage.
As I listened to those songs [of the glee club], in memory's eye I could see those staggering columns of the First World War, bending under soggy packs, on many a weary march from dripping dusk to drizzling dawn, slogging ankle-deep through the mire of shell-shocked roads, to form grimly for the attack, blue-lipped, covered with sludge and mud, chilled by the wind and rain, driving home to their objective, and for many, to the judgment seat of God.
I do not know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of their death.
They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory.
Always, for them: Duty, Honor, Country; always their blood and sweat and tears, as we sought the way and the light and the truth.
And 20 years after, on the other side of the globe, again the filth of murky foxholes, the stench of ghostly trenches, the slime of dripping dugouts; those boiling suns of relentless heat, those torrential rains of devastating storms; the loneliness and utter desolation of jungle trails; the bitterness of long separation from those they loved and cherished; the deadly pestilence of tropical disease; the horror of stricken areas of war; their resolute and determined defense, their swift and sure attack, their indomitable purpose, their complete and decisive victory -- always victory. Always through the bloody haze of their last reverberating shot, the vision of gaunt, ghastly men reverently following your password of: Duty, Honor, Country.
The code which those words perpetuate embraces the highest moral laws and will stand the test of any ethics or philosophies ever promulgated for the uplift of mankind. Its requirements are for the things that are right, and its restraints are from the things that are wrong.
The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training -- sacrifice.
In battle and in the face of danger and death, he discloses those divine attributes which his Maker gave when he created man in his own image. No physical courage and no brute instinct can take the place of the Divine help which alone can sustain him.
However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind.
You now face a new world -- a world of change. The thrust into outer space of the satellite, spheres, and missiles mark the beginning of another epoch in the long story of mankind. In the five or more billions of years the scientists tell us it has taken to form the earth, in the three or more billion years of development of the human race, there has never been a more abrupt or staggering evolution. We deal now not with things of this world alone, but with the illimitable distances and as yet unfathomed mysteries of the universe. We are reaching out for a new and boundless frontier.
We speak in strange terms: of harnessing the cosmic energy; of making winds and tides work for us; of creating unheard synthetic materials to supplement or even replace our old standard basics; to purify sea water for our drink; of mining ocean floors for new fields of wealth and food; of disease preventatives to expand life into the hundreds of years; of controlling the weather for a more equitable distribution of heat and cold, of rain and shine; of space ships to the moon; of the primary target in war, no longer limited to the armed forces of an enemy, but instead to include his civil populations; of ultimate conflict between a united human race and the sinister forces of some other planetary galaxy; of such dreams and fantasies as to make life the most exciting of all time.
And through all this welter of change and development, your mission remains fixed, determined, inviolable: it is to win our wars.
Everything else in your professional career is but corollary to this vital dedication. All other public purposes, all other public projects, all other public needs, great or small, will find others for their accomplishment. But you are the ones who are trained to fight. Yours is the profession of arms, the will to win, the sure knowledge that in war there is no substitute for victory; that if you lose, the nation will be destroyed; that the very obsession of your public service must be: Duty, Honor, Country.
Others will debate the controversial issues, national and international, which divide men's minds; but serene, calm, aloof, you stand as the Nation's war-guardian, as its lifeguard from the raging tides of international conflict, as its gladiator in the arena of battle. For a century and a half you have defended, guarded, and protected its hallowed traditions of liberty and freedom, of right and justice.
Let civilian voices argue the merits or demerits of our processes of government; whether our strength is being sapped by deficit financing, indulged in too long, by federal paternalism grown too mighty, by power groups grown too arrogant, by politics grown too corrupt, by crime grown too rampant, by morals grown too low, by taxes grown too high, by extremists grown too violent; whether our personal liberties are as thorough and complete as they should be. These great national problems are not for your professional participation or military solution. Your guidepost stands out like a ten-fold beacon in the night: Duty, Honor, Country.
You are the leaven which binds together the entire fabric of our national system of defense. From your ranks come the great captains who hold the nation's destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds. The Long Gray Line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.
This does not mean that you are war mongers.
On the contrary, the soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.
But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: "Only the dead have seen the end of war."
The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished, tone and tint. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears, and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen vainly, but with thirsty ears, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield.
But in the evening of my memory, always I come back to West Point .
Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country.
Today marks my final roll call with you, but I want you to know that when I cross the river my last conscious thoughts will be of The Corps, and The Corps, and The Corps.
I bid you farewell.
陳定南譯：
責任、榮譽、國家。
這三個神聖的口號，莊嚴的指出你們要做的，你們能做的，你們將做的。
這是你們振作的起點，
當勇氣快消失的時候，由此建立起勇氣；
當信心快失去的時候，由此恢復起信心；
當希望將渺茫的時候，由此點燃起希望。
懊惱的是：我既沒有流利的詞句，詩人的幻想，又缺少生動的比喻，來向大家說明它們的意義。
沒有信仰的人們會說：這不過是空話，不過是口號，不過是華麗的詞藻而已。
每一個徒尚空談的人，每一個政客，每一個犬儒之徒，每一個偽君子，每一個惹事生非的人，還有，我很遺憾的說，一些完全與我們不同品格的人，將試圖把它們貶損到甚至虛偽與可笑的程度。
但是，它們卻自有其建樹。
它們建立了你們的人格。
它們將你們陶冶得足以擔當未來的任務 作為保護這個國家的衛士。
它們使你們在軟弱時能夠堅強不屈，畏懼時能夠有勇氣面對自己。
它們教你在公平的失敗中要自豪而不屈，成功時卻要謙遜而溫和；
實踐力行而不徒尚空談；
面對困難和挑戰的刺激與壓迫而不尋求逸樂；
學著怎樣在風雨中站立起來，卻同情那些跌倒的人們；
要自制而後制人；
心靈要純潔，目標要高尚；
學著歡笑，但永不忘記如何哭泣；
勇往直前，但不忽略過去；
舉止莊重，但不過份嚴肅；
要謙沖為懷，才能記住真正偉大的單純；
要有真知的頭腦，也要有實力的謙和。
它們可以給你們一種穩健的意志，幻想的氣質，強烈的感情，生命的潛力，
克服怯懦的優越氣勢，捨棄逸樂而偏愛冒險的慾求。
它們在你心裡建立起好奇的意識，永不熄滅的進取的希望，以及生命的愉悅與啟示。
它們就這樣教你作為一個軍官 和 君子。........
你要統率哪一種士兵呢？他們可靠嗎？他們勇敢嗎？他們能獲勝嗎？他們的故事，你們都知道。那是美國戰士的故事。我對他們的印象，建立於許多許多年以前的戰場上，而且從未改變。他們是世界上最高尚的人物，過去我認為如此，現在我仍認為如此；不僅認為他們是最優秀的軍事人員，同時也認為他們是最純潔的。
他們的名望與聲譽，是每一個美國公民與生俱來的權利。在他們年輕力壯的時候，他們奉獻出了人類所能奉獻的熱愛與忠誠。他們無需我來褒揚，也不需要別人的讚頌。他們已寫下了他們自己的歷史，血淋淋的寫在敵人的胸膛上……
在二十次戰役中，在一百個戰場上，在一千次營火裡，我曾親眼看到那永恒的堅毅，那忘我的愛國忠誠，以及那無敵的決心，這些氣質已使他們同胞的心上刻下了他們的影像。從天涯到海角，他們曾深深的乾了勇氣之杯。
每當我聽著那些紀念的歌聲，我眼中的記憶就浮現，第一次大戰中那些蹣跚的行列，背負著潮濕的背包，疲憊的跋涉長途，從落雨的黃昏到細雨的黎明，在彈痕斑斑泥淖四佈的道路上淹沒了腳踝；淒涼地準備攻擊，嘴唇發青，滿身泥濘，在風雨中顫抖著，奔向目標，而就有許多人，到上帝的座下接受審判去了。
我不知他們生時的尊嚴，但我深知他們死時的榮耀。他們毫不遲疑的死去，毫不抱怨的死去，滿懷信心的死去，口角上仍掛著希望，希望我們繼續爭取到勝利。他們一直信奉的是：責任、榮譽、國家。總是他們的血汗淚流，為我們開啟了道路與光明。
而二十年後，在地球的另一邊，再度是骯髒的散兵坑，惡臭的陰溝，泥濘的戰壕，灼熱的太陽，傾盆的豪雨，森林小徑的寂寞與全然隔絕，那些被愛著的人們長期分離的痛苦，熱帶致命的疫癘，戰區襲擊的恐怖。他們那堅強的防禦，他們那迅速而準確的攻擊，他們那不屈的意志，他們那完全而確定的勝利──總會勝利，總是經由 最後反擊流血的朦朧。那些憔悴蒼白的人們，虔敬的追隨著你們的口號：責任、榮譽、國家。
你們現在面對著一個新的世界，一個變動的世界。衛星和飛彈的進入太空，標明了悠久的人類歷史中另一個時代的開始—太空紀元。科學家告訴我們，費了五十億或者更多的年月，才形成了地球；在三十億或者更多的年月中，才發展出了人類，再沒有比現在的進展更突然而更巨大的了！我們現在不僅要處理世界上的事物，同時要探討宇宙中無限的距離與尚未發現的秘密。我們現 在正邁向一個沒有邊際的新境界。
我們談著奇怪的詞語，談著利用宇宙能，談著呼風喚雨…所談的戰爭基本目標，不限於敵人的軍隊，而同時也包抱敵人的民眾在內；談著人類與另一個星球上邪惡勢力的最後衡突；諸如此類的美夢與幻想，已使我們的生命空前的令人振奮。
在所有這些發展與變化之中，你們的任務仍是不變的，堅定的，神聖的，那就是：打贏我們的戰爭。你們事業中的其他一切，都是為了完成這一重大奉獻。所有其他的 共同目的，所有其他的共同計劃，所有其他的共同需要，不論大的或小的，自會有人完成；但你們卻是受訓練來作戰的。你們的職業是軍事，你們的意志是戰勝，你們要知道：在戰爭中，勝利是沒有代替品的；如果你們失敗，國家就要滅亡；你們服務大眾的基本信條就是：責任、榮譽、國家。
其他的人，自會去辯論爭議性的國內與國際事端。但你們卻要沉著的，鎮靜的，超然的，站在保衛國家的崗位上，在國際糾紛的狂流中作國家的救生員，在戰場上作國家的鬥士。一 個半世紀以來，你們已經保衛了，防禦了，護持了它那自由與獨立、公理與正義的神聖傳統。讓文人們去爭辯政府措施的良窳，我們國力的衰微，是否由於長期赤字的負累？聯邦專制主義者的坐大？權力集團的猖狂？政治的過份腐化？罪惡的過份猖獗？民心的過於低落？租稅的過份提高或極端份子的過份狂暴？
另外，我們的個人自由是否像應有的那麼確定而完整？這些國家大事，無需你們這一行介入，也不必使用武力解決。路標正如同夜間十倍亮度的燈塔一般，豎立在那裡，指引著你們的方向—責任、榮譽、國家。
你們是將我們整個國防系統納入一體的操縱桿。從你們的行列中，產生出偉大的將領，在戰鐘響時，掌握國家的命運，西點軍校的同學們從未使我們失望過。如果你們要那樣做，就會有一百萬個幽靈，穿著草綠色的呢衣，穿著棕色的、藍色的、灰色的卡其，從白十字架上跳出來，怒吼著喊出神魔般的銘語：責任、榮譽、國家！
這並不是說你們都是好戰之徒。正好相反，軍人比別人更祈求和平，因為他們必須承受戰爭的最深創傷與疤痕。我們的耳際常會響起聖哲柏拉圖的名言：「祇有死者曾經看到戰爭的結局。」
我已老耄，黃昏已至。我的老年已快結束，聲音與顏色都漸黯淡。它們經由往事的夢境而漸漸消逝。它們的回味是奇美的，有淚水的滋潤，也有昨日微笑的撫慰。
那時到來，我會急切的聽著，聽著那迷人的起床號音，聽著那遙遠的召集鼓聲。在我的夢中，我再度聽到槍枝的撞擊聲，步槍的響聲，戰場上奇異而悲傷的低語。
在我夢境的黃昏，我又回到了西點軍校。那裡總是一再迴響著：責任、榮譽、國家！
今天是我最後一次校閱你們。但是我要你們知道，當我渡過這條河的時候，我的內心深處仍將思念著西點軍校的同學們，同學們，同學們！
現在我向你們道別了。
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