Moral Courage

Moral Courage: The courage to take a stand on a moral issue or intervene in an incident involving wrong actions. Moral courage develops by doing today that right and necessary thing that you have been afraid to do in the past.


On April 29, 2005 Colonel James P. Carruthers, fourteenth President of Millersburg Military Institute (Kentucky) spoke to the Cadet Corps on Moral Courage. Here is an excerpt from that speech.

Gentleman, I have come to see that the hardest thing to do is start. If you want to be something, then start. The beauty of life is that we can start at any moment. Every moment, every day, is an opportunity to start becoming the person you can be. It is never too late to start!

You must start before you can discover your true qualities. Who you are and what you have to offer this world will never be apparent until you start showing what you are made of. You may think it is okay not to do your homework or not to take an inspection seriously. You may think, “Everybody does it, so why not me?” What you need to understand is that no one will follow you as long as you have this attitude. People aren’t laughing with you, they are laughing at you. But you can start right now with a new attitude.

People follow those who have the moral courage to do the right thing. Courage will be yours in the future only if you start living a morally courageous life now. The toughest kind of courage is moral courage, the courage to stand up and do the right thing even if it means standing alone. Moral courage is something you must develop. You must work on it every day. Moral courage will make you a great leader, but only if you start. So start now!

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Mr. Carruthers has served in leadership positions both nationally and internationally. He has extensive experience in school administration, student recruitment, and independent school operations. Prior to joining the Meritas Family of Schools he served as the Vice President for Enrollment at Marion Military Institute, a prep school and college in Marion, Alabama and most recently as the President of Millersburg Military Institute, a preparatory school near Lexington, Kentucky.

A career Marine officer, Mr. Carruthers received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Scranton, Scranton, PA and is a graduate of the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College at Quantico, VA.