Citation for “A Good Man”* – Sunday, July 11, 1948
The institutions of men confer a great many and a great variety of honors, titles, degrees, and awards of one kind or another. Almost every organization that has brought men together in a common purpose issues its credentials, its recognition’s, and its marks of merit, for some of which there is much demand and much acclaim. From the most sought-after honors to the least—all are in one form or other recognitions from one man to another or from many men to one man of some degree of excellence, or supposed excellence, in some field of thought or action.
But amid all this, variety and multiplicity of honors and awards, some of which mean much and some of which mean little, there is one achievement of high distinction, seldom mentioned, and yet, fortunately, not so rare. It is a distinction that receives little of the world’s publicity, good or bad; and for which perhaps no medal was ever made, no citation ever written, no degree ever conferred, but which enables him who has it to take from life its greatest enjoyment. It gives him the confidence of children, the respect of neighbors, the trust of friends, and the peace of a quiet companionship with his own conscience. In short, it is the high distinction of having earned the right to be called “a good man.” He it is who is the steadying influence of neighborhoods and communities. He is the backbone of all nations that endure. He it is who makes life worth living and the world worth saving. And even though he may never see his name in prominent places yet be is the reason people can live in decency; he is the leavening element that makes possible the safety of property, that makes virtue possible, and that has made civilization as good as it is, despite all its weaknesses. Greater than brilliance, greater than cleverness, greater than “knowing all the answers and all the angles,” more to be sought after than glamor or wealth, than title or acclaim, is the right to be called “a good man.”
A good man may have all these other things; besides, he may have received many other honors—but the quality of goodness transcends them all. In the words of an ancient axiom: “In goodness there are all kinds of wisdom.”1
*Revised
1Euripides, Alcestis
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station K S L and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, July 11, 1948, 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon, EDST Copyright 1948.
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July 11, 1948
Broadcast Number 0,986