Iwonder if you’ve ever seen it. If, sitting in the audience at Maryland Hall in Annapolis, you’ve ever noticed an inscription above the stage. It reads:

“The measure of a man is the depth of his convictions, the breadth of his interests and the height of his ideals.”

Sure, it has the feel of an incomplete assessment. What about, for example, the depth of one’s love, the breadth of one’s imagination or the height of one’s courage? Still, for however incomplete it may be, it serves as a powerful barometer against which we can measure ourselves.

Importantly, this unattributed inscription is an “and” statement rather than an “or.” It recognizes that one’s character is a composite of convictions, interests and ideals, not a precious good mined from a single source.

At the same time, the lan

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