On the occasion of his 70^thbirthday in 1933, Baron Pierre de Coubertin was honored at the University of Lausanne.  Before an auditorium filled with local admirers from the Olympic City, the Baron offered his advice on how to live a life full of integrity.  Those who knew his circumstances, knew he was not offering a prescription for happiness—since his life was full of struggle and suffering. But it is clear from this ‘three-part guidance,’ that he had arrived at formula that must have given him a level of personal peace at the time.  The emphasis on altruism—giving of yourself for the greater good—must have reflected the comfort he found in the widespread impact his own work had produced.

“To sustain and guide you, nourish a triple will: the will to the physical joy which results from intense muscular effort; next the will to honest, complete and unremitting altruism ... lastly, the will to understand things as a whole.”