<font color="blue">[b]In any case, all of us face temptations frequently to be dishonest
and almost all of us could improve our moral behavior in some way.

Avoiding being immoral is a very worthy endeavor; however, it is
important to realize the immense gap from being "just barely on the
side of the law," i.e. on the edge between moral and immoral, to being
highly ethical and noble.

We can't all be like Mother Teresa or Albert Schweitzer,
but we can recognize the highest levels of ethics humans
are capable of achieving. It must, in some cases, require a long and
hard struggle to get there.

Examples: the parents who sacrifice greatly
so their children can have advantages they didn't have. The merchant
who works hard 12-hour days to be sure his/her customers are given
the best possible service, not just to make money. The soldier who
gives his leg, his sight, or his life to protect others. The caring person
who takes a needy child to raise. The person who undergoes great
personal loses in order to right a wrong or to fight for a worthy cause.
It is a giant leap from deciding to tell the truth on your resume about
your grades or work experience to devoting your life to a civil rights
cause, fighting on the side of the oppressed against an abusive
authority, opposing daily the wanton destruction of the earth, etc., etc.

It takes great self-control to transform your self from the lowest level
of just barely acceptable morality to the highest level.

But who can say that we can't all do it?

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