That line from The Little Prince by French aviator and author, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is the essence of the story and the essence of what we too often forget: that the most meaningful truths, character and love, can’t be photographed or seen. They have to be felt. You might not think that what many consider a children’s story has anything...

I’ve played chess about two dozen times, and every match feels less like a game and more like mental boot camp. It’s not difficult; it’s torture. Each move demands navigating hundreds of possible combinations in your head before making a single move. Then I came across a grandmaster whose strategy began long before the first pawn moved. Her preparation wasn’t...

“There’s a difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.” United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said that. But it was not part of any written Supreme Court opinion or legal case. While it’s been widely quoted as Stewart’s judicial philosophy, there is no record of it in any official Supreme Court...

Moments of character often define a person—sometimes even a nation. I first came across Senator Ross’s story when reading President Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage. What I discovered was that political courage was as difficult then as it is today. Throughout our history, politicians have faced those defining moments when principle collides with pressure, when conscience demands both courage and character....

The measure of a public servant isn’t how tightly they hold onto power, but how faithfully they hold their integrity when the pressure to bend is greatest. Few can withstand the pressure; fewer still have the character and courage to act. In October 1973, amid the growing Watergate scandal, Attorney General Elliot Richardson faced a test that would ultimately define...

Writer David Brooks is rarely prone to hyperbole and often resists the easy pull of partisanship. A thoughtful conservative who has moved toward the center, he writes to understand politics through the lens of conscience—reminding readers that integrity, not ideology, should guide the debate. Like Brooks, I believe that integrity is vital to a thriving democracy. Like Brooks, I believe...

I happened across Frances Perkins while searching files at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. She was the first woman in U.S. history to serve in a cabinet post, as Secretary of Labor under the most consequential president of the era. She shined brightest, not in seeking headlines, but in advancing the rights and well-being of ordinary Americans. Born in...

In addition to dismantling federal agencies and undercutting states’ rights, Donald Trump has launched a systematic assault on the foundations of American democracy. He’s attacked the independence of the judiciary and the free press, politicized the Justice Department and intelligence agencies, and weakened the system of checks and balances meant to safeguard the republic. In Trump world, the ideals of...

I’ve read and re-read Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address many times. Today, its words and meaning echo more loudly than ever. “Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish.” Lincoln refused to paint one side as righteous and the other as...

In every generation, there are a few public servants who stand as reminders of what political courage truly means. George W. Norris, the five-term Republican U.S. Senator from Nebraska, was one of them—a man who placed principle above party and conscience above convenience. His long career was defined not by ambition or allegiance, but by an unshakable devotion to fairness,...