When Bruce Lee’s TV series “The Green Hornet” was canceled after a single season in 1967, the actor began teaching private martial arts lessons to famous students such as Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Pressed to name his unique fight style, 26-year-old Lee obliged with Jeet Kune Do, a Cantonese phrase meaning “The way of the intercepting fist.” This quote — uttered before Lee became a film icon with 1973’s “Enter the Dragon,” which was released just six days after his death — appears in Lee's posthumously published “Tao of Jeet Kune Do.” With it, Lee suggests that a meaningful goal equates to a steep climb. Even if you don’t achieve your highest objective, the steps taken will lead you somewhere satisfying.

It is not worthy of a human being to give up.

With this optimistic sentiment, Swedish diplomat Alva Myrdal assures us that even in the face of extreme difficulty, resilience and tenacity are innate qualities of the human spirit. Myrdal was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982 for her distinguished work with the nuclear disarmament movement, which sought to convince the United States and Soviet Union to abandon their nuclear weapons during the Cold War. Her work and words show that it is always possible for hope, virtue, and peace to triumph.