A different Martin Luther King, Jr. speech excerpt

Martin Luther King, Jr. speech given at Barrett Jr. High, in Philadelphia, in 1967 

"What I'm saying to you this morning, my

friends: Even if it falls your lot to be a

street sweeper, go out and sweep streets 

like Michelangelo painted pictures! Sweep

streets like Handel and Beethoven

composed music. Sweep streets like 

Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets

so well that all the host of heaven and

earth will have to pause and say, "Here 

lived a great street sweeper who swept 

his job well!"  

If you can't be a pine on the top of a hill, 

be a scrub in the valley, but be the best 

little scrub on the side of the rill.  Be a 

bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't 

be a highway, just be a trail. If you can't 

be a sun, be a star.  It isn't by size that 

you win or you fail; be the best at 

whatever that you are!"