The Road to Character

You are not worthy. Being born so late in time, you missed the opportunity to grow up with puritanical values. You must search inside yourself, but that is not where the answer is.

Wow. I struggled with this book. The snippets into great lives were interesting - people like Francis Perkins, President Eisenhower, George Marshall, “George Eliot”. The rest of the book, although expected due to the title and intended goals, felt preachy to me.

The book ends on a note of joy, that one may find it in a life of duty and self control. However, none of the portrayed lives show any semblance of joy. Moreover, they were described again and again as choosing some service or other over joy. I'm not suggesting that we all live moment to moment with a short sighted approach, letting loose with our lust and gluttony. Rather, I'm saying that the content of the book does not align with the closing argument and that I think the heroic portrayal of people who do not seem outwardly happy for that end is not reasonable.