When I lived in New Orleans, I used to get my haircut by this guy named Pat in the French Quarter. I remember looking around the Monteleone Barber Shop, which had two conspicuously empty chairs, and asking why Pat never had anyone else working in the shop with him.

“I used to,” he said, “but the other barbers kept speaking badly about the President so I let them go.” Ordinarily, I would have just left it at that–this was the Deep South and politics are always risky–but I had to know.

“What president?” I asked.

“Jimmy Carter,” he said like I should have known.

I remember thinking, “lol what?” Had he really been holding onto this grudge for thirty years? And who white knights for Jimmy Carter?

But that curious exchange sent me down a rabbit hole. Over the years, I read a chunk of the books Carter wrote (I would not have guessed he wrote 30+ books). I also read several big biographies on Carter and became genuinely fascinated by a man that I’m not sure I’d heard a single good thing about growing up.

But because of Pat, slowly but surely, Jimmy Carter became one of my heroes. In fact, I’d argue he is the hero of my book Right Thing, Right Now, and largely the inspiration for the title. He appears in Discipline is Destiny and some of my favorite stories in The Daily Dad (like this one). And back in April, it was one of the honors of my life to give a speech about Carter at the U.S. Naval Academy, which Carter graduated from in 1946 right across from the recently named Carter Hall. (You can watch the speech here or at the link below and check out the others in my four virtues series here and here and here).

Well, less than two weeks ago, Jimmy Carter died at age 100. 100! The longest-living president in American history. That doesn’t tell us anything, though. Seneca’s line was that it’s not how long you live but how well you live that matters. He was pointing out that many people live to be old but have little to show for it. 

What I wanted to talk about today is some of the things that Jimmy Carter has to show for the century he spent on this planet.

The reviews of his presidency are unfairly mixed—this was a man whose term was without wars, without corruption, first addressed climate change, mandated the seatbelt in cars, returned the Panama Canal to its rightful owners, a historic peace deal for the Middle East.

As he summed up his own time in office: “We told the truth, we obeyed the law, and we kept the peace.”

Pretty good.

But his time as an ex-president is unquestioned. After he left office, Carter founded The Carter Center to promote global health, democracy, and human rights, earning him a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. In particular, Carter was relentless in his efforts to eradicate Guinea worm disease. At a 2015 press conference, Carter famously said, “I’d like for the last Guinea worm to die before I do.” When he started working on the problem, the disease afflicted more than 3.6 million people a year in 21 countries. As of the latest report at the end of 2022, there are just 13 cases in 4 countries.

Beyond wiping out diseases, he’s acted as an international mediator in North Korea, Haiti, and other nations. He was an active volunteer, focusing particularly on housing for the poor—still personally building houses into his 90s. He wrote numerous books on various subjects, from policy to his personal life and even poetry. He enjoyed a 77-year marriage to his beloved Rosalynn, “the foundation for my entire enjoyment of life,” Carter once said. Together, they had four children and 22 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 

In short, it was a life of service and a life of virtue. Not virtue in the pious, judgmental sense, but in the Stoic sense–active in public life, active in the world, equal parts compassionate and muscular, he was a man deserving to command because he commanded himself first. And so, here are some of the very best lessons from the great Jimmy Carter on how to live a good and honorable life:

Hang in there. In the 1930s and 40s, the African Americans who entered the Naval Academy left because of appalling racism. Wesley Brown was on the brink of leaving when Carter, who was two years ahead, popped by his dorm room and said, “Hang in there.” Because Carter grew up in a small, rural, segregated town in Georgia, he was expected to be racist. And so, one classmate recalled, “he was treated as if he was a traitor.” Still, Carter would often put his arm around Brown and let him know he was there for him. Brown would hang in there and become the first African American graduate of the Naval Academy in 1949.

Make time every day for study and reflection. Even when he was president, Carter blocked out an hour in the mornings for reading, thinking, and prayer.

The best lessons are learned by example. Carter’s reading habit began as a child. Growing up, reading was done as a family. Each evening, his mother sat down for dinner with a book. The children were encouraged to follow suit. It wasn’t considered rude, Jimmy would later reflect, because reading at the table was simply a Carter Family habit. What a beautiful scene that must have been, even if it was a little untraditional: each of their faces buried in a book, each of them learning, entertaining themselves, widening their horizons. Carter carried this tradition on with his own family even as they moved into The White House in 1977.

Always do your best. In an interview with Admiral Hyman Rickover, the father of the nuclear Navy, Carter proudly said he was ranked 59th in a class of 840 at the Naval Academy. Instead of being impressed, Rickover asked, “Did you always do your best?” Carter answered honestly that he did not always do his best. After a long pause, Rickover asked, “Why not?” and then walked out of the room. Carter would never forget this question. This question became the lodestar of Carter’s life.

Do it now. In 1970, Jimmy Carter won a surprise victory for governor of Georgia. During his inauguration in 1971, he announced: “I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over.” The crowd was stunned. He had just run a conservative campaign in a conservative state, did he really have to make that statement right then? “It’s impossible for me to delay something that I see needs to be done,” Carter later explained. He always said that he never wanted to do anything to hurt his country—that’s why he made that bold declaration the moment he became governor. This is a lesson for all of us. There are so many things that we want to do in life, but we delay because it will be too hard, too controversial, too time-consuming. The danger in the delay, Carter understood, is that we don’t say we won’t do it, we say we’ll get to it later. And then we never do. No one knows how much time we have. The longer we wait, the more likely it is that we’ll never get around to it. So stop delaying. Do what needs to be done. Do it now.

Seriously, do it now. Six years after that stunning speech in Georgia, Carter was elected president of the United States. On his very first day in office, just hours after his inauguration parade, he held a meeting—literally his first appointment—with a disabled army veteran named Max Cleland to discuss yet another stunning announcement. After asking Cleland to head the Veterans Administration, Carter instructed him to begin working on a blanket pardon for everyone who had evaded serving in Vietnam. He believed the time for forgiveness and understanding had come. Cleland, who supported the idea, warned the president that it would be unpopular in the Senate and might be worth delaying, perhaps until his second term. “I don’t care if all 100 of them are against me,” Carter replied. “It’s the right thing to do.”

Be generous. During the Depression, wanderers and hobos would often stop at Carter’s childhood home in Georgia, which was not far from the railroad tracks. Carter’s mother would always fix them something to eat. Later, Jimmy Carter would learn that the community of homeless people during the Depression had a series of symbols to communicate which houses were decent and kind and which were heartless and cruel and to be avoided. The idea of this mark—of earning it from those in need—stayed with him all his life. It’s why, even into his nineties, he donated his time and money to help others and built houses for those who could not afford their own.

Use your powers for good. The Carter family met a woman named Mary Prince when they moved into the Georgia governor’s mansion in 1971. She had been assigned to their staff as part of a work program for incarcerated inmates. Carter’s wife, Rosalynn, quickly became convinced of Prince’s innocence and was appalled at the details of her conviction—Prince, a black woman, had been convinced by her lawyer to plead guilty to manslaughter. The lawyer then had her plead to murder, for which she received a life sentence. The Carters asked that Prince be assigned to nanny their young daughter, Amy, and eventually secured her parole and a full pardon. She came to live with them in The White House. After his presidency, Carter bought her a house down the street from the Carters’ in Plains, Georgia. They remained close friends for the rest of their lives. Carter would dedicate a book called Our Endangered Values to her in 2006.

Don’t be all about business. As he was setting up his administration in The White House, Carter told the ambitious staff, “We are going to be here a long time, and all of you will be more valuable to me and the country with rest and a stable home life.”

You have only one life to live. Make the most of it. Carter said that’s what drove him: “I feel I have one life to live. I feel like God wants me to do the best I can with it. And that’s quite often my major prayer. Let me live my life so that it will be meaningful.”

Run a tight ship. Everybody thinks Jimmy Carter was a bad president because he was too nice or too idealistic, that he should have waited until reelection to do some of the things he did. Turns out the real reason he struggled (and why he wasn’t re-elected) was that he tried to get away with not having a Chief of Staff (read Chris Whipple’s book The Gatekeepers). He was a good man, but he had trouble managing all the demands on his time and attention. This is an important lesson, I think: At the end of the day, it comes down to how well-organized you are and how tight a ship you run.

Don’t talk about it. Be about it. Jimmy Carter, once evaluating his relationship with his faith, asked himself: “If I was tried for being a Christian, would I be convicted?” It’s sort of a breathtaking question—imagine suddenly taking your word for it wasn’t enough. Imagine you were actually being investigated. What would the record show? This is such an important question to ask yourself not just of faith, but as a parent, as a spouse, as a friend, as an employee, as a boss. Are you as committed as you say you are? Would the evidence be compelling? Or would it turn out that you talked a good game, but didn’t actually walk it? In the end, it doesn’t matter what you say. It matters who you are.

Age is no barrier. When Jimmy Carter’s mother was 68 years old, she saw an ad on television for the Peace Corps that said “Age is no barrier.” So she joined. Almost 70 years old, she went to India and taught nutrition and family planning! Is it any wonder then, that Jimmy Carter’s post-presidential years were so productive and service-oriented? Even at age 96, he built houses for Habitat for Humanity, wrote books and taught Sunday school. Carter knew that age was no barrier–especially when it comes to doing the right thing.

Take care of yourself. A young Jimmy Carter was pulled aside by his father one day: “There is something I want you to promise me,” his father said, “I don’t want you to smoke a cigarette until you are twenty-one years old.” This was the late 1930s when something like 40% of the population smoked (Carter’s dad himself was hopelessly hooked). “I won’t,” Jimmy promised. In his lifetime, Carter smoked only one cigarette, at age twenty-one while in the Naval Academy. He hated it and never did again. Tragically, his siblings and mother picked up his father’s smoking habit and each died of cancer in one form or another. Jimmy, as we know, lived to be 100. Take care of yourself. It allows you to do more good. 

Get comfortable pissing people off. A Democratic congressman once said of Carter: “If that son of a bitch asks me to do the right thing one more time, I’m going to kick his ass.” No matter what you do, someone is going to be unhappy about it. This is a simple fact of life. But you can’t let it stop you.

Don’t cheat the gift. As a young man, Jimmy Carter heard the Parable of the Talents, which tells the story of three servants who are given money from their master to protect while he is away. When the master returns, he asks each servant what they did with the money. The first invested the money, the second put it in a bank, and the third buried it in fear of the responsibility. “I gather from this episode,” Carter says of the parable, “that we should use to the fullest degree whatever talents or opportunities we have been given, preferably for the benefit of others.” To whom much is given, the lesson from the parable goes, much is expected. Do your best. Become what you can be. You owe the world that much.

Be loyal. One campaign reporter once remarked that of all the presidents he covered in the 20th century, Jimmy Carter was the only president that he can say with absolute certainty was faithful to his wife. Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalyn, were together for 77 years, which is the longest-running marriage in the history of American Presidents.

Be tough on yourself, understanding of others. Jimmy Carter held his life to a high standard, but he was also honest with himself about his flaws and made sure never to boast. The famous ‘scandal’ where Carter admitted to having ‘lust in his heart,’ was Carter trying to say that he didn’t judge people who did have affairs because he himself was not without sin. “The guy who is loyal to their wife ought not be condescending or proud because of his relative degree of sinfulness,” he once said in an interview. Strict with yourself, Marcus Aurelius would say, and tolerant of others.

——–

On the one hand, I was sad to hear of Carter’s passing. On the other, I wasn’t that sad. Because no one could say that he was taken from us too soon. Not because he was given plenty of time on this planet, but because of what he did with that time. This man certainly lived.

I thought about this a few months ago when I went back to that barber shop while I was in New Orleans on business.

Pat didn’t remember me and I wasn’t sure if I remembered the conversation right, so I sort of danced around it. But I found a way to bring it up.

 “Who doesn’t like Jimmy Carter?” he said, when I asked him again about the other barbers. “He’s one of the most decent men who ever lived.” 

Agreed!