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.
“All things whatsoever God in his infinite wisdom has seen fit and proper to reveal to us, while we are dwelling in mortality … are revealed to our spirits precisely as though we had no bodies at all; and those revelations which will save our spirits will save our bodies.”
| Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 355.
The coming of the Son of Man never will be, never can be, till the judgments spoken of for this hour are poured out, which judgments are commenced. . . . All this must be done before [the] Son of Man will make his appearance: wars and rumors of wars, signs in the heavens above [and] on the earth beneath, [the] sun turned into darkness [and the] moon to blood, earthquakes in diverse places, oceans heaving beyond their bounds, then one grand sign of the Son of Man in heaven. But what will the world do? They will say it is a planet, a comet, and so forth. Consequently, the Son of Man will come as the sign of [the] coming of the Son of Man.
| Discourse of 6 April 1843, recorded by Willard Richards; WJS, p. 180
The best way to obtain truth and wisdom is not to ask from books, but to go to God in prayer, and obtain divine teaching.
Whatever God requires is right, no matter what it is, although we may not see the reason there of until all of the events transpire.
| History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843]
Nothing is so much calculated to lead people to forsake sin as to take them by the hand and watch over them with tenderness. When persons manifest the least kindness and love to me, O what pow’r it has over my mind, while the opposite course has a tendency to harrow up all the harsh feelings and depress the human mind.
| Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book, Page 62
“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. . . . It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converse with another, and that he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did.”
| Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith
“If a man learns nothing more than to eat drink, and sleep, and does not comprehend any of the designs of god, the beast comprehends the same things. It eats, sleeps, and knows nothing more about God; yet it knows as much as we, unless we are able to comprehend by the inspiration of almighty God. If men do not comprehend the character of God, they do not comprehend themselves.”
“Being born again, comes by the Spirit of God through ordinances.”
| Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith
“There is a difference between the Holy Ghost and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Cornelius received the Holy Ghost before he was baptized, which was the convincing power of God unto him of the truth of the Gospel, but he could not receive the gift of the Holy Ghost until after he was baptized. Had he not [been baptized], the Holy Ghost which convinced him of the truth of God, would have left him.”
| History of the Church, 4:555
“We are looked upon by God as though we were in eternity. God dwells in eternity, and does not view things as we do.”
| Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 356.