"Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go?
Thou hast the words of eternal life."
“The main purpose of the Doctrine and Covenants, you will find, is to implement the law of consecration....This law, the consummation of the laws of obedience and sacrifice, is the threshold of the celestial kingdom, the last and hardest requirement made of men [and women] in this life."
-Hugh Nibley
"There is no safety only in the arm of Jehovah. None else can deliver and he will not deliver unless we do prove ourselves faithful to him in the severest trouble, for he that will have his robes washed in the blood of the Lamb must come up through great tribulation, even the greatest of all affliction."
-Joseph Smith, The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, p. 285; standardized
"We should gather all the good and true principles in the world and treasure them up, or we shall not come out true Mormons."
-Joseph Smith
"We live in a day when the adversary stresses on every hand the philosophy of instant gratification. We seem to demand instant everything, including instant solutions to our problems. . .It was meant to be that life would be a challenge. To suffer some anxiety, some depression, some disappointment, even some failure is normal."
-Boyd K. Packer
“I have many memories of my boyhood. Anticipating Sunday dinner was one of them. Just as we children … sat anxiously at the table, with the aroma of roast beef filling the room, Mother would say to me, ‘Tommy, before we eat, take this plate I’ve prepared down the street to Old Bob and hurry back.’
“I could never understand why we couldn’t first eat and later deliver his plate of food. I never questioned aloud but would run down to his house and then wait anxiously as Bob’s aged feet brought him eventually to the door. Then I would hand him the plate of food. He would present to me the clean plate from the previous Sunday and offer me a dime as pay for my services. My answer was always the same: ‘I can’t accept the money. My mother would tan my hide.’ He would then run his wrinkled hand through my blond hair and say, ‘My boy, you have a wonderful mother. Tell her thank you.’ … Sunday dinner always seemed to taste a bit better after I had returned from my errand”
-Thomas S. Monson
"There are souls that in their narrowness blame the whole world. But overwhelm such a soul with mercy, give it love, and it will curse what it has done, for there are so many germs of good in it. The soul will expand and behold how merciful God is, and how beautiful and just people are. He will be horrified, he will be overwhelmed with repentance and the countless debt he must henceforth repay."
-Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
"God helps those that help others."
"Think of your brethren like unto yourselves, and be familiar with all and free with your substance, that they may be rich like unto you.
But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God.
And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to ado good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted."
-Jacob 2:17-19
"A child born into a shantytown in Argentina, a favela in Brazil, or an indigenous population in Chiapas, Mexico, will find it very difficult to escape the poverty into which he has been born. Like his parents, 80 percent of the time, he will not complete his education, will be forced to work from a very early age for extremely low income, and will have almost no chances for development.
While the rich barricade themselves inside their marble palaces, the poor continue to get poorer.
Because many families are torn apart by socioeconomic stress, and many young couples decide against starting families due to economic uncertainty, the vicious cycle of poverty inherent in the Latin American system is destroying the most basic human rights of family and of life itself.
A solution must be found in order to defend human rights and provide for a decent standard of living in Latin America. 89 percent of Latin Americans, when polled, said that they suffer from inequality in their nation and have begun to protest the injustice politically over the last few years.
Yet many more economists continue to profess the belief that inequality is inevitable for progress."
-Bernardo Kliksberg
"For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me... Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
-Jesus Christ
"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."
-President Ezra Taft Benson
“Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me." He was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!”
"But love ye your enemies, and do good, and blend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil."
-Luke 6:35
"The Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice"
-1 Kings 19:11-12
“You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.”
-Buddha
"A man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race"
-Joseph Smith Jr.
"The whole idea of revenge and punishment is a childish day-dream. Properly speaking, there is no such thing as revenge. Revenge is an act which you want to commit when you are powerless and because you are powerless: as soon as the sense of impotence is removed, the desire evaporates also."
-George Orwell
There’s nothing sacred about a profit-oriented society.
There are two sets of principles. They are the principles of power and privilege and the principles of truth and justice. If you pursue truth and justice it will always mean a diminution of power and privilege. If you pursue power and privilege it will always be at the expense of truth and justice.
-Noam Chomsky
"Love for others is the soap to wash off loneliness."
"Pain is all part of the plan."
"Certainly we ought to be discontented, we ought not simply to find out ways of making the best of a bad job, and yet if we kill all pleasure in the actual process of life, what sort of future are we preparing for ourselves? If a man cannot enjoy the return of spring, why should he be happy in a labour-saving Utopia? What will he do with the leisure that the machine will give him?"
"Fashion is just things that aren't dumb yet, but will be."
"The moment when your addictions no longer hide the truth from you. When your whole life breaks down. That's the moment when you have to somehow choose what your life is going to be about."
"Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion."
"No evil man could write such a book as this [Book of Mormon] and no good man would."
-Elder Holland's Father
“It is better to trust and sometimes be disappointed than to be forever mistrusting and be right occasionally.”
“The strait and narrow path, though clearly marked, is a path, not a freeway nor an escalator. Indeed, there are times when the only way the strait and narrow path can be followed is on one's knees!"
-Neal A. Maxwell
"Our people are so conditioned as to view any substantive sharing of the wealth with great suspicion. Yet in our society today, people can deed everything they have to anything or anybody, from a cat to an asylum or orchestra, and nobody raises any objection."
"It was the plea of the medieval barons that if the lord of the manor didn't own everything and keep all in strict subjection, there would be no great lords to fight the other great lords who were trying to subject their people"
"Money doesn't free one from obligation to someone else"
"President Kimball continued, "But when I review the performance of this people in comparison of what is expected, I am appalled and frightened." What appalls and frightens him? He views the prime evils of the time under three headings: (1) deterioration of the environment, (2) quest for affluence, and (3) trust in force of arms."
"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone."
"As the eagle was killed by the arrow winged with his own feather, so the hand of the world is wounded by its own skill."
"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved."
"It appears that those who receive the Savior’s strongest reproach are often those who hold themselves in high esteem because of their wealth, influence, or perceived righteousness."
"And there were no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor any manner of lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God"
"Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end"
"Change is the end result of all true learning."
