"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.  I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.  I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children.  I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden.  I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.  I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."

-Marjorie Pay Hinckley

"When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power."

-President Ezra T. Benson

"Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions.  The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming."

Dallin H. Oaks
Desire, Ensign May 2011

"I had a father-in-law who came from difficult circumstances as a young man and he told me several times, 'You have two chances for a happy, eternal family.  The first one is the one you're born into; the second one is the one you create.  And it's the second one that counts.  Don't blow your second chance.'"

Julie S. Beck, BYU-Idaho Devotional April 2013

"For as God bestows any ability or gift upon any of us, he binds us to such as have need of us and as we are able to help."

-John Calvin

Courage

"Courage is required to make an initial thrust toward one's coveted goal, but even greater courage is called for when one stumbles and must make a second effort to achieve."

-Thomas S. Monson, Living the Abundant Life

"It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is.  It all works out.  Don't worry.  I say that to myself every morning.  It will all work out.  If you do your best, it will all work out.  Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and confidence in the future.  The Lord will not forsake us.  He will not forsake us."

-Gordon B. Hinkley

"What if our only motive were love?  What if everything we did, we did out of love?"

-Russell T. Osguthorpe
BYU Devotional, 8 March 2011

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

-Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

"Man, learn what God wants you to be."

-Aulus Persius Flaccus, Satires, III, line 71

"I meet so many people who constantly complain about the burden of their responsibilities.  Of course the pressures are great.  There is much, too much, to do . . .Turn your thinking around.  The gospel is good news.  Man is that he might have joy. Be happy!  Let that happiness shine through your faces and speak through your testimonies. . . 

"I enjoy these words of Jenkins Lloyd Jones . . .

"'Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed.

"'Most putts don't drop.  Most beef is tough.  Most children grow up to be just people.  Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration.  Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise.

"'Life is like an old-time rail journey - delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed.

"'The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.' (Deseret News, June 12, 1973)"

-Gordon B. Hinkley, Four Imperitives for Religious Educators  15 September 1978

"No task will be so sordid and base . . .that it will not shine and be reckoned very precious in God's sight."

-John Calvin

"I know what I want is above my strength - but He who has given me the desire will also give me strength to do the impossible."

-Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light

“There [will] come a time when God will fill what He [has] emptied.”

         

   -Brother Benito, Garlic for Pegasus:  The Life of Brother Benito do Goes of the Society of Jesus, Schoenberg

"Imagine yourself as a living house.  God comes in to rebuild that house.  At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing.  He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised.  But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense.  What on earth is He up to?  The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards.  You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace.  He intends to come and live in it Himself."

-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies."

-Mother Theresa
In the Heart of the World:  Thoughts, Stories, and Prayers

"The trouble with most of our prayers is that we give them as if we were picking up the telephone and ordering groceries—we place our order and hang up. We need to meditate, contemplate, think of what we are praying about and for and then speak to the Lord as one man speaketh to another."

-Gordon B. Hinkley

"Excellence is not found in just knowing the scriptures, not just loving the scriptures, but in living the scriptures."

Emmett Smith
Excellence in the Common Man, BYU Education Week 2002

"Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."

Doctrine & Covenants 123:17

"I believe in Christ as I believe in the sun at noonday.  Not because I can see it, but by it I can see everything else."

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

The Seven Deadly Sins

"Wealth without Work
Pleasure without Conscience
Knowledge without Character
Commerce without Morality
Science without Humanity
Religion without Sacrifice
Politics without Principle"

Mahatma Gandhi

"Life by the yard is hard; by the inch it's a cinch.  Each of us can be true for just one day -- and then one more and then one more after that -- until we've lived a lifetime guided by the Spirit, a lifetime close to the Lord, a lifetime of good deeds and righteousness."

Thomas S. Monson
Believe, Obey, and Endure, Ensign May 2012

"Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits."

James Allen
As a Man Thinketh, p13

"We have not been blessed with moral agency to do whatever we want whenever we will.  Rather, according to the Father's plan, we have received moral agency to choose the right, to do good, and to become whatever God intends for us to become."

David A. Bednar
Act in Doctrine

"Never take counsel from your fears."

-Stonewall Jackson

I haven't posted lately due to internet malfunction and the flu, so here's a speech that has more than enough wisdom in it.  It was very thought provoking.  It's by Michael Wesch and it's titled, "The End of Wonder in the Age of Whatever."

Speeches

"The joy of discipline or the pain of regret.  Which will it be today?"

(I read this on a message board)

"The condition of our heart is a choice we make.  It is not a condition imposed upon us, not even by suffering and adversity."

Gerald N. Lund
Look Up My Soul:  The Divine Promise of Hope

"The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that a true Latter-day Saint 'is to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to provide for the widow, to dry up the tear of the orphan, to comfort the afflicted, whether in this church, or in any other, or in no church at all, wherever he finds them'."

Thomas S. Monson
Guideposts for Life's Journey, BYU Speeches, November 2007

"Being human always points, and is directed, to something or someone, other than oneself -- be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter.  The more one forgets himself -- by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love -- the more human he is."

Viktor Frankl
Author of Man's Search for Meaning

"God knows our gifts.  My challenge to you and to me is to pray to know the gifts we have been given, to know how to develop them, and to recognize the opportunities to serve others that God provides us.  But most of all, I pray that you will be inspired to help others discover their special gifts from God to serve."

Henry B. Eyring

Help Them Aim High, Ensign, November 2012

"Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith.

"Nevertheless - whosoever putteth his trust in him the same shall be lifted up at the last day.  Yea, and thus it was with this people.

"For behold, I will show unto you that they were brought into bondage, and none could deliver them but the Lord their God, yea, even the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and of Jacob."

Mosiah 23: 21-23
Book of Mormon

"One of the greatest indicators of righteous character is the capacity to recognize and appropriately respond to other people who are experiencing the very challenge or adversity that is most immediately and forcefully pressing upon us.  Character is revealed, for example, in the power to discern the suffering of other people when we ourselves are suffering; in the ability to detect the hunger of others when we are hungry; and in the power to reach out and extend compassion for the spiritual agony of others when we are in the midst of our own spiritual distress.  Therefore, character is demonstrated by looking, turning, and reaching outward when the instinctive response of the "natural man" (Mosiah 3:19) in each of us is to turn inward and to be selfish and self-absorbed.  And the Savior of the world is the source, the standard, and the ultimate criterion of moral character and the perfect example of charity and consistency."

David A. Bednar
Act in Doctorine

"Often when we pray for help with a significant matter, Heavenly Father will give us gentle promptings that require us to think, exercise faith, work, at times struggle, then act.  It is a step-by-step process that enables us to discern inspired answers."

Richard G. Scott
"How to Pray and Seek Answers", New Era 2012

"I have found the paradox:  that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love."

-Mother Teresa
Come Be My Light

“Life offers you two precious gifts—one is time, the other freedom of choice, the freedom to buy with your time what you will. You are free to exchange your allotment of time for thrills. You may trade it for base desires. You may invest it in greed. …

“Yours is the freedom to choose. But these are no bargains, for in them you find no lasting satisfaction.

“Every day, every hour, every minute of your span of mortal years must sometime be accounted for. And it is in this life that you walk by faith and prove yourself able to choose good over evil, right over wrong, enduring happiness over mere amusement. And your eternal reward will be according to your choosing.

“A prophet of God has said: ‘Men are that they might have joy’—a joy that includes a fullness of life, a life dedicated to service, to love and harmony in the home, and the fruits of honest toil—an acceptance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ—of its requirements and commandments.

“Only in these will you find true happiness, the happiness which doesn’t fade with the lights and the music and the crowds.” 

^{Man's Search for Happiness (pamphlet, 1969), 4-5}

^{(Quote found in D. Todd Christofferson's talk, Reflections on a Consecrated Life)}

"Without patience, we will learn less in life.  We will see less.  We will feel less.  We will hear less.  Ironically, rush and more usually mean less."

-Mother Theresa
(I found this quote on ldsperfectday.blogspot.com, Discerning the Voices that Influence Us, Part 2)

"Isn't it interesting with regard to the matter of individual

fulfillment, a natural and basic human need, that some fail to 

observe that one of the great advantages of being fulfilled is 

that one does not have to spend all of his or her time thinking about being fulfilled?"

Neal A. Maxwell

BYU Devotional

Family Perspectives, 15 January 1974

"The great task of life is to learn the will of the Lord, and then do it."

Ezra Taft Benson
The Great Commandment - Love the Lord, Ensign, May 1988, 4

"Some people I’ve encountered seem to believe that we are here to prove to God, to everyone around us, and even to ourselves just how perfect we are—that we can and do live all of the gospel principles to their fullest, right from the start, never faltering!

"There is danger in such a prideful perspective. Such a view may make us reluctant to admit our mistakes. When inevitably we do fall short, it becomes difficult for us to square our life view with the fact that we have weaknesses and have committed sin. It makes it hard for us to see clearly and acknowledge just where we are on the path of progress. It leads us to harshly judge and condemn ourselves and at the same time rationalize how and why our actions really don’t disqualify us. It can lead us to try to hide our sins, which serves only to shade them from healing light. It can lead us to judge others harshly, crowding out the ability to develop the crowning virtue of charity.

"Perhaps instead the Lord expects that we acknowledge that we are weak, that we have much to learn through the experiences we have, and that we make mistakes, and then prove to Him that we will repent and put our whole heart into doing better. That we are here to humbly learn and grow and to make changes and turn to Him as we go is a liberating truth."

Douglas F. Prawitt

BYU Devotional, Line Upon Line:  Finding Joy in the Progress, July 19, 2011

"First observe, then serve."

Linda K. Burton, Ensign November 2012

"Line upon line and precept upon precept, gradually and almost imperceptibly, our motives, our thoughts, our words, and our deeds become aligned with the will of God.  Conversion unto the Lord requires both persistence and patience."

David A. Bednar
"Converted Unto the Lord," Ensign November 2012

"So much in life depends on our attitude.  The way we choose to see things and respond to others makes all the difference.  To do the best we can and then to choose to be happy about our circumstances, whatever they may be, can bring peace and contentment."

Thomas S. Monson

"Living the Abundant Life," Ensign, January 2012

"President James E. Faust reminded us, 'It's not so much what happens to us but how we deal with what happens to us.' (James E. Faust, "Where Do I Make My Stand?" Ensign, November 2004, 20) Recognizing our personal responsibility and exercising self-control make repentance possible and strengthen our character.  Each day tests how we will react to unexpected circumstances, for the same set of circumstances can bring either resentment or gratitude."


Robert R. Steuer
BYU Devotional
Just in Case Someone Asks, I Will Be Ready, September 30, 2008

"I am going to preach a hard doctrine to you now.  The submission of one's will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God's altar.  It is a hard doctrine, but it is true.  The many other things we give to God, however nice that may be of us, are actually things He has already given us, and He has loaned them to us.  But when we begin to submit ourselves by letting our will be swallowed up in God's will, then we are really giving something to Him.  And that hard doctrine lies at the center of discipleship.  There is a part of us that is ultimately sovereign, the mind and heart, where we really do decide which way to go and what to do.  And when we submit to His will, then we've really given Him the one final thing He asks of us.  And the other things are not very, very important.  It is the only possession we have that we can give, and there is no lessening of our agency as a result.  Instead, what we see is a flowering of our talents and more and more surges of joy.  Submission to Him is the only form of submission that is completely safe."

Neal A. Maxwell
Ensign, August 2000 "Insights from My Life"

". . .the Lord's ratio of blessings to our obedience is a very generous ratio indeed.  He is so quick to reward us, so quick to reassure us, and so anxious to take delight when we serve Him."

Neal A. Maxwell
Insights from My Life
Ensign, August 2000

"All of these events (in our lives) happen for divine purposes.  It has taught me that God truly blesses the details of our lives.  These interactions and relationships, which might seem random in the moment, are ordained to bless and perfect our lives."

Visions of Glory by John Pontius
pg. 16

"All of you know that we believe in the ministering of angels. You also know that angels will not do for us what we can do for ourselves. For them to do so would be contrary to the order of heaven.

"There is a measurable difference between a student coming to my office to seek clarification on something they have read or that was taught in class and the student that comes asking to be taught what they missed because they chose not to come to class or complete the reading assignment.

"Would not the same difference exist between those who keep their covenants and those who choose to miss meetings, skip their reading, and ignore assignments while asking God to overlook their neglect in the dispensing of His blessings?

"We are generally familiar with the process of revelation announced in section 9 of the Doctrine and Covenants where we are directed to study the matter out in our minds, draw the best conclusion we can, and then bring our best offering to the Lord, asking for His approval while yet being ready to accept His counsel otherwise. The very nature of this process is designed to balance our experience and agency with the wisdom of heaven."

Joseph F. McConkie

BYU Devotional, Finding Answers, November 12, 2006

"I said to the man 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 a light and safer than a known way."

-Minnie Louise Haskins
prose introduction to "God Know," The Desert (self-published, 1908)

(I got this quote from a BYU speech given by Thomas S. Monson, November 13, 2007)

"Instead of fearing the future, exercise the faith that will allow you to lay claim to the promises of the Lord."

Michael T. Ringwood
Ensign, January 2013, 57