Success

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which one has overcome while trying to succeed.
-- Booker T. Washington

Real Study

"Are you and I daily reading, studying, and searching the scriptures in a way that enables us to hold fast to the rod of iron—or are you and I merely clinging? Are you and I pressing forward toward the fountain of living waters—relying upon the word of God? These are important questions for each of us to ponder prayerfully."
--Elder David A. Bednar, "CES Fireside for Young Adults • February 4, 2007", Brigham Young University

Life's Trials - Enduring

"Rather than simply passing through trials, we must allow trials to pass through us in ways that sanctify us."
--Elder Neil A Maxwell, "Enduring Well", April 1997 Ensign

My Ways Are Not Your Ways

"The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature."
--Ezra Taft Benson, "Born of God", Ensign, July 1989, 2

Becoming Great

"True greatness...always requires regular, consistent, small, and sometimes ordinary and mundane steps over a long period of time."
--Howard W. Hunter, "True Greatness", Ensign, May 1982, 19

Agency

"As you submit your will to God, you are giving Him the only thing you can actually give Him that is really yours to give. Don't wait too long to find the altar or to begin to place the gift of your wills upon it! No need to wait for a receipt; the Lord has His own special ways of acknowledging."
--Neal A. Maxwell, "Remember How Merciful the Lord Hath Been", Ensign, May 2004, pg 46

Obedience

"The greatest single lesson we can learn in mortality is that when God speaks and a man obeys, that man will always be right."
--President Thomas S. Monson, Ensign, May 2005, 22

Doctrine, Principles, Applications

"Well-taught doctrines and principles have a more powerful influence on behavior than rules."
--Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Ensign, Nov. 1999, 79

The Design of our Existence

"Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God"
--Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 255-56

Pondering

"The things of God are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out."
--Joseph Smith, Liberty, MO, March 25, 1839, History of the Church, 3:295

Obedience

"... Whatever God requires is right, no matter what it is, although we may not see the reason thereof till long after the events transpire. If we seek first the kingdom of God, all good things will be added"
--Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 255-56

Doctrine, Principles, Applications

"True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior."
--Boyd K. Packer, Ensign, May 2004, 79

Rough Stone

"I am like a huge, rough stone rolling down from a high mountain; and the only polishing I get is when some corner gets rubbed off by coming in contact with something else, striking with accelerated force against religious bigotry, priestcraft, lawyer-craft, doctor-craft, lying editors, suborned judges and jurors, and the authority of perjured executives, backed by mobs, blasphemers, licentious and corrupt men and women--all hell knocking off a corner here and a corner there. Thus I will become a smooth and polished shaft in the quiver of the Almighty, who will give me dominion over all and every one of them, when their refuge of lies shall fail, and their hiding place shall be destroyed, while these smooth-polished stones with which I come in contact become marred."
--Joseph Smith, Nauvoo, Illinois, May 21, 1843, History of the Church, 5:401

Book of Mormon Most Correct Book

"And Joseph Smith, the Prophet, the instrument whom God used to translate this record, testified that 'the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.' (History of the Church, 4:461.)"
--President Ezra Taft Benson, May 1988

Importance of Your Testimony

"Keep the fire of your testimony of the restored gospel and your witness of our Redeemer burning so brightly that our children can warm their hands by the fire of your faith."
--President Boyd K. Packer Ensign, May 2003, 84

Personal Revelation

"No man can receive the Holy Ghost without receiving revelations. The Holy Ghost is a revelator."
--Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 6:58

Neil's Quote

"With the influences of evil that surround our children, can we even imagine sending them out in the morning without kneeling and humbly asking together for the Lord's protection? Or closing the day without kneeling together and acknowledging our accountability before Him and our thankfulness for His blessings? Brothers and sisters, we need to have family prayer."
--Neil L. Andersen, "Prophets and Spiritual Mole Crickets," Ensign, Nov. 1999, 17

What American Has Had Most Powerful Influence

"In 1844 Josiah Quincy (a non-member), a respected mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, traveled to Nauvoo, Illinois. He toured the city, visited with the Saints, and interviewed the Prophet Joseph Smith. Mr. Quincy later wrote a book titled Figures of the Past and included a chapter on the Prophet with this prediction: "It is by no means improbable that some future text-book for the use of generations yet unborn will contain a question something like this: 'What historical American of the nineteenth century has exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen?' And it is by no means impossible that the answer to the interrogatory may be thus written: 'Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet.'"
--John Henry Evans, Joseph Smith: An American Prophet (1946), 3-4. Quoted by Tad R. Callister, "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration," Ensign, June 2002, 62

Remember Indiana Jones?

When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for us to stand on or we will be taught to fly.--Patrick Overton

Light your Candle

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.--Buddha

Holds Us By the Hand

And I said to the one who stood at the gate of the year, "Give me a light that I may tread safely into the Unknown." And he replied, "Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way."--Minnie Haskins

Light

Aristotle Onassis - "It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light."