We find that wisdom can come from all sorts of places and people, and the most important thing is to receive it and then act on it righteously. The credo of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., displayed in the main lobby of the Rockefeller library, is something every good American should take to heart, and, if done and lived, would truly make America a far better place to live and enjoy. Regrettably, though, far too many Americans don't live by this credo and have no interest in adhering to it.
This credo states that "… every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty." Indeed, each of us does have a responsibility to our rights, and especially to our unalienable rights, for it is the wrong thinking regarding these rights, and our abuse, so of, that gets so many people into the kind of trouble that would be best to avoid. That is to say, while we have the right to the pursuit of happiness, this needs to be circumscribed by the fact that we do not have the right to go about achieving such happiness at the expense of other people's unalienable rights being violated, for we must first be responsible for having that right and none else. So too, when good opportunities are presented to us, it is our responsibility to do what we must to make good on that opportunity, for there is no world in which there are endless opportunities, which signifies that when such comes, we need to seize it and thus claim it as our own, by thereby making good on it. Finally, there are far too many people who believe that what they possess is by all rights their very own, which is a selfish outlook, and should be tempered by the fact that those that are gifted with great material things have an obligation to be not just prudent with their possessions, but dutiful in seeing that those possessions do not corrupt their mind and their ethics.
This credo also states that "I believe that truth and justice are fundamental to an enduring social order." Indeed, those that would have a good life must make it to be their point to live up to truth, and to not submit to lies and deceptions in their everyday activities, because those that permit lies to triumph over truth, have done so typically because they will benefit in some way from that lie, which means that they have made a serious error which can only be overcome by dedicating their lives to living by and for truth. Additionally, there needs to be justice in this world, especially in consideration that the next world is a domain of pure justice, which signifies that we have a duty to be just and fair to one another presently, and thereby no respecter of other persons, but rather a respecter only of the character of that person.
Finally, this credo states that: "…right can and will triumph over might." Indeed, we live in a domain in which history tells us that might seems to be the go-to way that countries deal with one another and also how they conduct their domestic affairs. That is to say, firepower and intimidation seem to trump sensibility and fairness, which is a construct, lived by that does no favors to humankind. Rather, we are obligated to do the right thing, and by doing so, this will be the moral power that will overcome might; for that which is right cannot ever, in the skeins of time, be vanquished by might, but instead might must be the servant to right.
In sum, we must collectively live by this credo and by doing so we will make society a better place through our good contribution to it.