Quotes By LDS Prophet Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith was the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Born on December 23, 1805, in Sharon, Vermont, he is considered by members of the Church as a prophet, seer, and revelator. Joseph translated the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ and a record of ancient American peoples as was revealed to him by God.
(Explaining the difference between an angel and a ministering spirit) “The one (an angel*) a resurrected or translated body, with its spirit ministering to embodied spirits—the other (a ministering spirit*) a disembodied spirit, visiting and ministering to disembodied spirits.
| Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 191 (*commentary added for clarity)
“A man who is full of the love of God is not content with blessing his family only, but thinks about all of the people in the world, anxious to bless the whole human race.”
“Happiness consists not of having, but of being – not of possessing, but of enjoying. . . . For what a man has he may be dependent upon others; what he is rests with him alone. What he obtains in life is but acquisition; what he attains is true growth.”
“A religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary [to lead] unto life and salvation.”
| Lectures on Faith, p. 58.
“The things of God are of deep import, and time, and experience, and careful, and solemn, and ponderous thoughts can only find them out.”
“Our Heavenly Father is more liberal in His views, and boundless in His mercies and blessings, than we are ready to believe or receive.”
| History, 1838–1856, volume D-1
“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.”
When God commands, do it!
| History of the Church, 2:170; from “History of the Church” (manuscript), book B-1, p. 558
“We came to this earth that we might have a body and present it pure before God in the Celestial Kingdom…The great principle of happiness consists of having a body.”
| Words of Joseph Smith, 60
“‘Will mothers have their children in eternity?’ Yes! Yes! Mothers, you shall have your children; for they shall have eternal life, for their debt is paid. There is no damnation awaiting them for they are in the spirit. But as the child dies, so shall it rise from the dead, and be forever living in the learning of God. It will never grow [in the grave]; it will still be the child, in the same precise form [when it rises] as it appeared before it died out of its mother’s arms.”
| Discourses of the Prophet Joseph Smith, ed. Alma P. Burton (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1956), 138–39.