“He who cheats others is a knave, but he who cheats himself is a fool.”

How appropriate of a blog title as I fudge and pretend like I live in California (as Emily can attest).

I just thought I’d share an idea / principle that I picked up in church today. It was paraphrased, I think, but I’ll share the original quote.

Mr. Conrad N. Hilton of the Hilton Hotel chain paraphrased the same idea: “I have been taught that there is one person in the world you never want to fool, and that is yourself, because that is plain stupidity.”

Mr. Hilton told about a plain bar of iron being worth about five dollars. But that same iron, if made into horseshoes, would be worth $10.50. If it were made into needles, it would be worth $3,285. And if turned into balance springs for watches, its worth would be over $250,000.

Apparently the value of the raw iron is only what it costs to process it from the hill. Its greater value is determined by what is made of it. People are much the same as iron. You or I can remain nothing more than raw material, or we can be polished to a high degree. Our value is determined by what we make of ourselves.

Taken from an article by Spencer W. Kimball, written in 1972. If you know anything about iron today, uh, just adjust mentally for inflation 😉

So we are created equal, but our ultimate value will be determined by what we, with the help of the touch of the master’s hand, choose to make of ourselves. Great principle.

One nice thing about this post-a-day stuff is that it forces me to reflect on my day, when often I just turn out the lights on one day and look forward to the next.