Something to Think About

I was given this quote yesterday that really made me think about my life.  I loved it so much I just had to share:

Radiation

There is one responsibility which no man can evade, that responsibility is his personal influence.  Man's unconscious influence is the silent, subtle radiation of his personality---the affect of his words and acts on others.  This radiation is tremendous!  Every moment of life, man is changing to a degree the life of the whole world.

Every man has an atmosphere which is affecting every other man.  He cannot escape for one moment from this radiation of his character, this constant weakening or strengthening of others.  Man cannot evade the responsibility by merely saying that it is an unconscious influence.

Man can select the qualities he would permit to be radiated.  He can cultivate sweetness, calmness, trust, justice, loyalty, nobility, and by these qualities he will constantly affect the world.

This radiation, to which I refer, comes from what a person really is, not from what he pretends to be.   Every man, by his mere living, is radiating either sympathy, sorrow, morbidness, cynicism, or happiness and hope---or any of the hundred other qualities.

Life is a state of radiation and absorption.  To exist is to be the recipient of radiation.  To exist is to radiate.

-Pres. David O. McKay
April, 1948