Quotes I like

Quotes I like#

Gospel principles#

Faith is not a lack of doubt. Faith is the strength to work through those doubts.1

Happiness does not consist of a glut of luxury, the world’s idea of a ‘good time.’ Nor must we search for it in faraway places with strange-sounding names. Happiness is found at home. — Thomas S. Monson, 2001

In order to perform their personal ministries, Church leaders cannot be suspicious and questioning of each of the hundreds of people they meet each year. Ministers of the gospel function best in an atmosphere of trust and love. In that kind of atmosphere, they fail to detect a few deceivers, but that is the price they pay to increase their effectiveness in counseling, comforting, and blessing the hundreds of honest and sincere people they see. It is better for a Church leader to be occasionally disappointed than to be constantly suspicious.

The Church is not unique in preferring to deal with people on the basis of trust. This principle of trust rather than suspicion even applies to professional archives. During my recent visit to the Huntington Library in Pasadena, California, I was interested to learn that they have no formal procedures to authenticate the many documents they acquire each year. They say they consider it best to function in an atmosphere of trust and to assume the risk of the loss that may be imposed by the occasional deceiver. – Dallin H. Oaks2

Education is the power to think clearly, the power to act well in the world’s work, and the power to appreciate life. — Brigham Young

The LDS scholar has his citizenship in the kingdom, but carries his passport into the professional world—not the other way around. — Neal A. Maxwell3

I propose to tell you the secret of life as I have seen the game played, and as I have tried to play it myself. … Though a little one, the master-word looms large in meaning. It is the open sesame to every portal, the great equalizer in the world, the true philosopher’s stone, which transmutes all the base metal of humanity into gold. The stupid man among you it will make bright, the bright man brilliant, and the brilliant student steady. With the magic word in your heart all things are possible, and without it all study is vanity and vexation. The miracles of life are with it; the blind see by touch, the deaf hear with eyes, the dumb speak with fingers. To the youth it brings hope, to the middle-aged confidence, to the aged repose. True balm of hurt minds, in its presence the heart of the sorrowful is lightened and consoled. It is directly responsible for all advances in medicine during the past twenty-five centuries. … And the master-word is Work — W O R K — a little one, as I have said, but fraught with momentous sequences if you can but write it on the tablets of your hearts, and bind it upon your foreheads. — William Osler

… or, more succinctly: “Work is the miracle by which talent is brought to the surface and dreams become reality.” — Gordon B. Hinckley

“You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you,” Sam Rayburn once said, “unless you know how to follow, too.”4

“To measure the goodness of life by its delights and pleasures is to apply a false standard. The abundant life does not consist of a glut of luxury. It does not make itself content with commercially produced pleasure, mistaking it for joy and happiness.

“To find real happiness, we must seek for it in a focus outside ourselves. No one has learned the meaning of living until he has surrendered his ego to the service of his fellowmen. Service to others is akin to duty, the fulfillment of which brings true joy.” — Thomas S. Monson5

“He [Pres. McKay] is a prophet. He does not just occupy a prophet’s chair, he does not just have the title of prophet, he is a real prophet, and he is responsible for … more revelations in his 15 years than are in the Doctrine and Covenants. They are not in the Doctrine and Covenants, we do not print them any more like that. We put them out in handbooks and by directives, and by letters, and our files and vaults are full of them. I could take time … temples, etc. … Revelations continue to come to this great kingdom all the time. I suppose there is never a week when there are not revelations received. – Spencer W. Kimball6

“Now brethren, in conclusion, in a church as vast and far-reaching as ours, there must be order. We must have, in addition to the scriptures and modern revelations, guidelines and procedures for the Church to move forward around the world in an orderly manner. There are some elements of bureaucracy which cannot help but occasionally produce some irritation and perhaps frustration. We ask you to look beyond any irritations or inconvenience in Church administration. We ask you to focus and concentrate on the simple, sublime, spiritually nourishing, and saving principles of the gospel. We ask you to stand steady. We ask you to be faithful in your stewardships as the shepherding priesthood authority of the Church. Let us be true to our callings and the holy priesthood we bear. Let us be united in supporting and sustaining those in authority over us.” – Pres. James E. Faust7

“President Joseph F. Smith taught that should there be sickness in a home and should there be present ‘apostles, or even members of the first presidency of the Church, … the father is there. It is his right and it is his duty to preside’” (Gospel Doctrine, p. 286).

I speak to that member of the Church who struggles with a test of faith [in which their faith has been] shaken by alleged wrongdoing of some leader in the Church. – Boyd K. Packer8

“Because God told me not to.” [in answer to questions like, “why don’t you drink coffee?”] – Bishop Scott Purvines

“Ultimately, it was Enron’s tragedy to be filled with people smart enough to know how to maneuver around the rules,” Kurt Eichenwald wrote in his Enron book, Conspiracy of Fools, “but not wise enough to understand why the rules had been written in the first place.”

The greatest manifestation of spirituality is reverence; indeed, reverence is spirituality. Reverence is profound respect mingled with love. It is a ‘complex emotion made up of mingled feelings of the soul.’ Carlyle says it is ‘the highest of human feelings.’ If reverence is the highest, then irreverence is the lowest state in which a man can live in the world. –David O. McKay9

Being married and having children has impressed upon my mind certain lessons. … My dignity as a human being depends perhaps more on what sort of husband and parent I am than on any professional work I am called to do. My bonds to them hold me back from many sorts of opportunities. And yet these bonds are, I know, my liberation. They force me to be a different sort of human being, in a way in which I want and need to be. – Michael Novak10

The tendency of youths in the church with regard to standards on dating and physical intimacy seems to be to seek the most explicit rules possible with the intention of finding out just how far they can go with impunity; so that they can walk along the edge of the line between what has clearly been stated to be inappropriate and what may not be. This misses the whole point. The purpose of the standards is not to set up a line to walk along, but rather to indicate dangerous areas which we should stay far away from.11

No matter how good an excuse may be, no reason for failure or defection is ever so satisfying to ourselves or to anyone else as is actually doing what we should do, or delivering on the date that something is due. Excuses are at best a second-choice substitute.

It is a surpassing quality in life to follow through, to keep commitments, to keep the commandments, and no matter how ingenious our excuses are, they don’t cancel commitments, or justify our failures, or relieve us from answering before the highest bar, unless they are founded on real, valid reasons—and not merely on our comfort or convenience. — Richard L. Evans12

quotes on other topics#

Political issues#

Unity is power; and when I reflect on the importance of it to the stability of all governments, I am astounded at the silly moves of persons and parties to foment discord in order to ride into power on the current of popular excitement. — Joseph Smith, Jr., from his 1844 political platform statement

With the challenges that exist in the world today, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve are particularly concerned that you participate appropriately in the political process in the country where you live. The Church is neutral in political contests and does not support candidates or parties. We do expect, however, that our members will be fully engaged in supporting the candidates and parties of their choice based on principles that will protect good government. Our doctrine is clear: those who are “honest” and “wise … should be sought for diligently” (D&C 98:10). “When the wicked rule the people mourn” (D&C 98:9). This means that everyone should feel obligated to vote. In those states in the United States that have caucuses you should make yourself familiar with the issues and the candidates and fully participate. … If you attend, you will be allowed to participate. We hope that you will check out the caucus time for the party of your choice and then feel an obligation to attend. We would hope that this would be true of all citizens, members and non-members alike in all states and all countries where elections will be held. The price of freedom has been too high and the consequences of non-participation are too great for any citizen to feel that they can ignore their responsibility. –Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve13

It takes two-thirds of Congress, the President’s signature and three-fourths of the states to change the Constitution—or one judge. And believe me, the left learned that a long time ago. — Rick Scarborough14

“There are no magic outside solutions to our problems; the real answers lie within us, and we need more than a philosophy of entitlement. We need to all pitch in, lend a hand, and do our part to help forge a brighter future for this country.” –George Bush15

If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin. — Charles Darwin

Medicine as a career#

It becomes every person who purposes to give himself to the care of others, seriously to consider the four following things: First, that he must one day give an account to the Supreme Judge of all the lives entrusted to his care. Second, that all his skill and knowledge and energy, as they have been given him by God, so they should be exercised for His glory and the good of mankind, and not for mere gain or ambition. Third, and not more beautifully than truly, let him reflect that he has undertaken the care of no mean creature; for, in order that he may estimate the value, the greatness of the human race, the only begotten Son of God became himself a man and thus ennobled it with His divine dignity, and far more than this, died to redeem it. And fourth, that the doctor being himself a mortal human being, should be diligent and tender in relieving his suffering patients, inasmuch as he himself must one day be a like sufferer. — Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689)

The peculiar joy I have known … has been the fusion of scientific and ‘romantic’ penetrations, finding my mind and my heart equally exercised and involved, and knowing that anything different would be a dereliction of both.

When I was young, I was torn between two passionate, conflicting interests and ambitions–the pursuit of science and the pursuit of art. I found no reconciliation until I became a physician. I think all physicians enjoy a singular good fortune, in that we can give full expression to both sides of our natures, and never have to suppress one in favour of the other. – Oliver Sacks16

In one respect my mind has changed during the last twenty or thirty years … formerly pictures gave me considerable, and music very intense delight. But now … I have almost lost my taste for pictures or music. … My mind seems to have become a sort of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of fact. … The loss of these tastes, this curious and lamentable loss of the higher aesthetic tastes, is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature. – Charles Darwin17

Medicine, neuroscience#

[Describes the appearance of the brain in man and continues] “… and men ought to know that from nothing else but thence (from the brain) come joys, delights, laughter and sports, and sorrows, griefs, despondency and lamentations …, and by the same organ we become mad and delirious, and fears and terrors assail us. …” – Hippocrates18

“‘I ceased to have any moods … I ceased to care about anything. Nothing MOVED me–not even the death of my parents. I forgot what it felt like to be happy or unhappy. Was it good or bad? It was neither. It was nothing.’”–a depressed Parkinsonian patient of Oliver Sacks. Footnote: “‘Thus when God forsakes us, Satan also leaves us’ – Sir Thomas Browne.”19 [Compare also Lehi, “dead, having neither death nor life” (2 Ne. 2).]

misc.#

[Young people] now entering college … will be carrying responsibilities well into the 21st century…. No one can pretend to more than a guess at what they will then be called upon to comprehend. This much we do know: that no training in fixed techniques, no finite knowledge now at hand, no rigid formula they might be given can solve problems whose shape we cannot yet define. Nor have they time to waste in pursuit of transitory expedients, the ephemeral, the shallow or the merely popular.

The most versatile, the most durable, in an ultimate sense the most practical knowledge and intellectual resources which they can now be offered are those impractical arts and sciences around which the liberal arts education has long centered: the capacity to see and feel, to grasp, respond and act over a widening arc of experiences; the disposition and ability to think, to question, to use knowledge to order an ever-extending range of reality; the elasticity to grow, to perceive more widely and more deeply, and perhaps to create; the understanding to decide where to stand and the will and tenacity to do so; the wit and wisdom, the humanity and the humor to try to see oneself, one’s society, and one’s world with open eyes, to live a life usefully, to help things in which one believes on their way. This is not the whole of a liberal arts education, but as I understand it, this range of goals is close to its core. — John E. Sawyer, in 1961! from www.williams.edu

Billy lowers his pencil for a moment and wonders: ‘Without death, there is hardly any threat strong enough to truly appreciate human life.’ He thinks: ‘I am as good as dead—too afraid to live, only waiting, never taking a risk—I am as good as dead already’.

The boy detective thinks, ‘The only thing all men have in common with one another is their inherent capacity to make mistakes.’ He reasons, ‘But there is wonder in the attempt, knowing we are all destined to fall short, but forgoing reason and fear time and time again so deliberately.’ He takes a deep breath, grasps the trusty flashlight, and hurries back into the night. — from Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails. Chicago: Punk Planet Books, 2006.

If vitamins and exercise alone explain why Tom Cruise is so, um, knowledgeable and well-grounded, pass the Prozac. — editorial, Chicago Tribune20

1: Steven D. West, talk in Webster Groves ward, 11 December 2016
2: Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Oct., 1987 (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1987/10/recent-events-involving-church-history-and-forged-documents.p1?lang=eng)
3: Neal A. Maxwell, “Some Thoughts on the Gospel and the Behavioral Sciences,” Ensign, July 1976, 70
4: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1560277,00.html?cnn=yes
5: Thomas S. Monson, Ensign, May 1990, p. 92
6: Teachings of Pres. Spencer W. Kimball, pp. 447 and 457.
7: James E. Faust, “Responsibilities of Shepherds,” Ensign, May 1995, 45.
8: Boyd K. Packer, “‘Judge Not According to the Appearance’,” Ensign, May 1979, 79 (q.v.).
9: David O. McKay, “Meditation, Communion, Reverence,” Instructor, Oct. 1966, p. 371 [in 1989 Priesthood manual, lesson 22 (on Reverence), p. 139]
10: Michael Novak, “The Family Out of Favor,” Harper’s, Apr. 1976, p.37 [see also quote], quoted by Bruce C. Hafen, “The Waning of Belonging,” Ensign, 10/89, p. 71 (68-72).
11: Kevin and Winona Black, 1993-01-30
12: Richard L. Evans, From the Crossroads, 1955, 20.
13: Elder Quentin L. Cook, March 4, 2012. (Emphasis added.) https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/elder-cook-address-young-adults-march-2012
14: Rick Scarborough, quoted in Daniel Eisenberg, “The posse in the pulpit,” Time, May 23, 2005.
15: George Bush, NY Times, 11/8/92, p. 26L
16: Oliver Sacks, Awakenings, 1983 ed., E.P.Dutton, Inc., New York:1983, pp. 253-54
17: Charles Darwin, Autobiography, cited in Oliver Sacks, Awakenings, 1983 ed., p. 254 (Epilogue)
18: Adams, T. The genuine works of Hippocrates. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1939. Cited in Trimble MR. The relationship between psychiatry and neurology: a British perspective with particular reference to neuropsychiatry, pp. 14-30 in J Mueller (ed.). Neurology and Psychiatry: A Meeting of Minds. Basel: Karger, 1989.
19: Oliver W. Sacks, Awakenings, 1983 ed., E.P.Dutton, Inc., New York:1983, p. 64
20: Chicago Tribune, 2005-07-01, https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2005-07-01-0507010295-story.html (accessed 25 Aug 2021)