to trust or not to trust

The only way you can make a man trustworthy, is to trust him.

-Henry L. Stimson, 1945-

The complete quote:
The chief lesson I have learned in a long life is that the only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him; and the surest way to make him untrustworthy is to distrust him and show your distrust.

A mere month after dropping the A-bombs on Japan, Stimson wrote this in a memo to President Truman, acknowledging that the bombing had been a serious mistake on the road to world peace.


It's an interesting thought, asking for analogies such as:

The only way you can make a man respectable, is to respect him.
The only way you can make a man admirable, is to admire him.
The only way you can make a man inspirational, is to inspire him.
The only way you can make a man lovable, is to love him.

In other words, if people are not what you would like them to be, it's your own damn fault ;-). And if we go one step further:

The only way you can become trustworthy, is to trust yourself
The only way you can become respectable, is to respect yourself
The only way you can become admirable, is to admire yourself
The only way you can become inspirational, is to inspire yourself
The only way you can become lovable, is to love yourself

the quote becomes a contemporary conception of self-development.

(I guess this quote impressed me, since this is the second time I'm quoting it :)