David O. McKay

As Christ lived after death so shall all men live, each taking his place in the next world for which he has best fitted himself. The message of the resurrection, therefore, is the most comforting, the most glorious ever given to man, for when death takes a loved one from us, our sorrowing hearts are assuaged by the hope and the divine assurance expressed in the words: “He is not here: he is risen.” Because our Redeemer lives, so shall we. I bear you witness that he does live. I know it, as I hope you know that divine truth. May all mankind some day have that faith.

David O. McKay  |  Gospel Ideals, p. 48

Topics: , , ,

“No other success can compensate for failure in the home.”

David O. McKay  |  Conference April 1935

Topics: , ,

“Marriage is a relationship that cannot survive selfishness, impatience, domineering, inequality, and lack of respect. Marriage is a relationship that thrives on acceptance, equality, sharing, giving, helping, doing one’s part, learning together, enjoying humor.”

David O. McKay  |  Experiencing Happiness in Marriage

Topics:

“Sincere praying implies that when we ask for any blessing or virtue, we should work for the blessing and cultivate the virtue.”

David O. McKay  |  Secrets of a Happy Life, 114–15.

Topics: , , ,

“The form of worship is frequently an outward compliance without the true soul acknowledgment of its deep spiritual significance… In the partaking of the sacrament, there is danger of people’s permitting formality to supersede spirituality.”

David O. McKay  |  Gospel Ideals (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1953), 71.

Topics: ,

“No more sacred ordinance has been given to us by the Lord than the administration of the Sacrament.”

David O. McKay  |  Conference Report, October 1956, 88.

Topics: ,

“The true end of life is not mere existence, not pleasure, not fame, not wealth. The true purpose of life is the perfection of humanity through individual effort, under the guidance of God’s inspiration. Real life is response to the best within us. To be alive only to appetite, pleasure, pride, money-making, and not to goodness and kindness, purity and love, poetry, music, flowers and stars, God and eternal hopes, is to deprive one’s self of the real joy of living.”

David O. McKay  |  General Conference, October 1963

Topics: ,

That the spirit of man passes triumphantly through the portals of death into everlasting life is one of the glorious messages given by Christ, our Redeemer. To him this earthly career is but a day and its closing but the setting of life’s sun. Death, but a sleep, is followed by a glorious awakening in the morning of an eternal realm. . . . If everyone . . . knew that the crucified Christ actually rose on the third day – that after having greeted others and mingled with others in the spirit world, his spirit did again reanimate his pierced body, and after sojourning among men for the space of forty days, he ascended a glorified soul to his Father – what benign peace would come to souls now troubled with doubt and uncertainty!

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stands with Peter, with Paul, with James, and with all the other early apostles who accepted the resurrection not only as being literally true, but as the consummation of Christ’s divine mission on earth.

David O. McKay  |  Teachings of Presidents of the Church: David O. McKay, pp. 65-66

Topics: , , ,

“Let me emphasize that the noblest aim in life is to strive to live to make lives better and happier. The most worthy calling in life is that in which man can serve best his fellowman.”

David O. McKay  |  Conference Report, April 1961, p. 131

Topics: ,

“Parents who fail to teach obedience to their children, if [their] homes do not develop obedience society will demand it and get it. It is therefore better for the home, with its kindliness, sympathy and understanding to train the child in obedience rather than callously to leave him to the brutal and unsympathetic discipline that society will impose if the home has not already fulfilled its obligation.”

David O. McKay  |  The Responsibility of Parents to Their Children, p. 3.

Topics: , ,