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!"
