Let each man learn to know himself

The other day, as I overheard one neighbor

criticizing another,

I was reminded of these lines:

President N. Eldon Tanner

April 8, 1972

"Wouldn't this old world be better

If the folks we meet would say:

'I know something good about you,'

And then treat us that way?"

Then I thought of the words of one of our hymns:

"Let each man learn to know himself;

To gain that knowledge let him labor,

Improve those failings in himself

Which he condemns so in his neighbor.

How lenient our own faults we view,

And conscience's voice adeptly smother;

Yet, oh, how harshly we review

The selfsame failings in another! …

So first improve yourself today

And then improve your friends tomorrow."

—Hymns, no. 91