Retired General James Mattis tells officers at the Marines' Club in San Francisco to remember the words of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, a former infantry officer in the Civil War: "As life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time at peril of being judged not to have lived." He points to the need to integrate into civilian life without cynicism, exceeding expectations in civilian and business life like service men and women before them, and remembering to have an impact on other people's lives.