The Sunday Book Review, August 5, 2012: Winners Never Cheat

Like all advice books, "Winners Never Cheat: Everyday Values We Learned as Children (But May Have Forgotten), written by Jon M. Huntsman (not the once-and-future-Republican-presidential-candidate, but his father), has some interesting stories and a lot of good advice---the kind of advice that made Madame L wish someone would have given a copy to other Republican presidential candidates, and of course Madame L is thinking of one such candidate in particular.

Madame L got this book for free at the University of Utah's Huntsman Cancer Institute, and although she hasn't read it all the way through, she has enjoyed reading bits and pieces of it. She will be happy to share her copy with anyone who's interested.

Madame L sees that the 2005 edition of the book, the edition she has, is also available at Amazon.com, used, for a penny. She sees that there's a newer edition of the book, listing Glenn Beck as co-author, which fact almost made Madame L decide not to review the book at all. She hasn't seen that edition and wouldn't recommend it. Ever. Because what could Glenn Beck possibly add to a book about winners or being honest?

But Madame L digresses. Here's a great quote, quoted by Mr. Huntsman, from the 2005 edition: "When young men or women are beginning life, the most important period, it is often said, is that in which their habits are formed. That is a very important period. But the period in which the ideals of the young are formed and adopted is more important still. For the ideal with which you go forward to measure things determines the nature, so far as you are concerned, of everything you meet." ---Henry Ward Beecher

And here's a quote from Mr. Huntsman's own writing: "Human beings are innately honest, but if you pack legal heat, the other side will do likewise....Lock the lawyers in the attic until you truly need them...It's not that lawyers are inherently unethical or evil, no more so than members of any other profession...Politicians weasel and fib, promise much and deliver little, all in the name of remaining in office..."