Standing for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes

An invitation to stand up and be counted . . .

No nation can be greater than the strength of its individual homes or the virtue of its people. Sadly, many today would say ours is a nation in crisis. Families are splintering around us, our children are becoming alienated from their great cultural heritage, and our leaders seem increasingly out of touch. Yet, according to Gordon B. Hinckley, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one cannot lose hope. The solution lies not within our governments, schools, or symbols of popular culture, but rather within ourselves, our families, and our faith.

In the tradition of William Bennett's Book of Virtues, Hinckley has created a classic look at the values that can change our world -- and how to stand up for them. Drawing on anecdotes from his own life, as well as from our nation today, he examines ten virtues that have proven through the ages to provide the most profound path to a better world: love, honesty, morality, civility, learning, forgiveness and mercy, thrift and industry, gratitude, optimism, and faith. He then shows how the two guardians of virtue -- marriage and the family -- can keep us on that path, even in difficult times.

Standing for Something is an inspiring blueprint for what we can all do -- as individuals, as a nation, and as a world community -- to rediscover the values and virtues that have historically made us strong. At once masterful and illuminating, it is a work for our time: a reflection from one man's long and productive life that dwells not on the past but on the means by which all of us can work toward a brighter future.