“Individuals should seek to do his life’s work so well that the living, the dead, or the unborn couldn’t do it better.”
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Source: The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life (1960)
About this quote
In The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life (1960), King uses a direct appeal to responsibility to examine self awareness, with attention to individuals, living, unborn. The practical center is the relationship between life and couldn and better, giving readers a specific lens for judgment and action.
When to use it
- A community organizer builds a meeting around individuals before participants choose one measurable action related to self awareness.
- A teacher pairs the passage from The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life (1960) with a primary-source exercise about life and public responsibility.
- A team leader uses the tension between living and better to discuss conduct under pressure.