Welcome to the inspirational living podcast.

Today's reading was edited and adapted from The Making of the Man by Edward Ward Carman, published in 1909.

The subject of my talk today isn't the training of your intellectual faculties or the acquisition

of knowledge.

I would rather impress upon you that the strongest, most disciplined mind cannot itself bring

you honor or happiness, cannot make you a good and useful citizen, or entitle you

to the respect of others.

The great topic upon which I plan to speak is character, for the greatest women and men,

whose names are honored and revered by all humankind, were not great because they were mighty in intellect,

but because they were grand in soul.

Let me urge you not to be satisfied to achieve a mere reputation,

without achieving the character to sustain it.

The mere love of reputation, of self-advertisement, of fame and celebrity, is one of the

deadliest forms of vanity that ever cursed humanity.

Such vanity has never yet brought real happiness to anyone, but it has brought

woe to many. I do not undervalue reputation for its own sake. There never was a good woman or

man who was indifferent to the opinions of other good people. But the main thing, so far as your own

peace and happiness are concerned, is what you honestly think of yourself when you go to bed at

night. You can mislead others and thereby receive the hollow and transient pleasure of their praise.

But when you have retired to your bedroom and turned out the lights, you will see in the

darkness the hypocrite who was invisible in the light.

Then you will try to kick your conscience out of bed and roll over on the other side to

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