"I guess I always had wanted ultimately to be Chief of Naval Operations. But when I went back home to where I had lived, and when I saw what my father's life had meant in the view of those who knew him best, his service on the school board, his work for the new hospital, his dealing with the education of farmers, his life in the church, and his life in politics- he had just been elected to the legislature and had served one year when he died- I could feel a pull on me that was almost irresistible to go back and renew my ties to my birthplace. I felt I had to make the choice. Did I want to be Chief of Naval Operations, and devote my whole life to that narrowly-defined career, which was a good one, or did I want to go back and build a more diverse life with a lot of friends, and have permanent stability in a community, an integral part in the life of a whole group of people? And I chose the latter. Regrets? None at all."
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Activists from the United StatesPresidents of the United StatesNovelists from the United StatesDiplomats of the United StatesNobel Peace Prize laureates
Original Language: English
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Comments in a 1975 interview, as quoted by Howard Norton & Bob Slosser, The Miracle of Jimmy Carter (1975), Plainfield: Logos International, hardcover, p. 18-19
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter
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