There is a story told of a tzadik who spoke to his students before he died and said the following: "Don't say about me that I was a big tzadik because I was very far from it. Don't say that I was a great talmid chochom because there was so much Torah that I didn't learn. What can you say about me? How should you remember me? That I wanted to be good. I wanted to be good with all of my heart and all of my soul."
I want to highly recommend [for those who understand Hebrew well] the book רציתי להיות טוב.
