Quotes By LDS Prophet & Apostle Spencer W. Kimball
“When I pass through the lovely countryside or fly over the vast and beautiful expanses of our globe, I compare these beauties with many of the dark and miserable practices of men, and I have the feeling that the good earth can hardly bear our presence upon it. … The Brethren constantly cry out against that which is intolerable in the sight of the Lord: against pollution of mind, body and our surroundings.”
| “The False Gods We Worship,” Ensign, June 1976.
“If it is unnatural, you just don’t do it. That is all, and all the family life should be kept clean and worthy and on a very high plane. There are some people who have said that behind the bedroom doors anything goes. That is not true and the Lord would not condone it.”
| Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, 312
“It is the destiny of men and women to join together to make eternal family units. In the context of lawful marriage, the intimacy of sexual relations is right and divinely approved. There is nothing unholy or degrading about sexuality in itself, for by that means men and women join in a process of creation and in an expression of love”
| President Kimball Speaks Out, 2
“There are many people who seem to rely solely on the Lord’s mercy rather than on accomplishing their own repentance. … The Lord may temper justice with mercy, but he will never supplant it. Mercy can never replace justice. God is merciful, but he is also just.”
| The Miracle of Forgiveness, Bookcraft, 1969, p. 358.
“God reveals himself to [people] who are prepared for such manifestations.”
| Conference Report, Apr. 1964, 97.
“Some have no ear for spiritual messages when they come in common dress…Expecting the spectacular, one may not be fully alerted to the constant flow of revealed communication.”
| Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1982, p. 457.
“The home is the seedbed of Saints. There are not enough good homes. Children still come to some homes where they will be abused, not loved, and not taught the truth.
We are greatly concerned with the fact that the press continues to report many cases of child abuse. We are much concerned that there would be a single parent that would inflict damages on a child. The Lord loved little children, and he said:
‘Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.’ (Matt. 19:14.)
Let no Latter-day Saint parent ever be guilty of the heinous crime of abusing one of Christ’s little ones!”
| The True Way of Life and Salvation
“Every time a temple is dedicated to the Lord , the darkness pushes further back, prison doors are opened and light comes into the world.”
| Church News, Jan. 27, 2001
“Perfection is a long, hard journey with many pitfalls. It’s not attainable overnight. Eternal vigilance is the price of victory. Eternal vigilance is required in the subduing of enemies and in becoming the master of our lives. It cannot be accomplished in little spurts and disconnected efforts. There must be constant and valiant, purposeful living – righteous living. Do we have the power to attain this kind of abundance? The psalmist was inspired to write: What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet.” (Ps. 8:4–6.) There are those today who say that man is the result of his environment and cannot rise above it. Those who justify mediocrity, failure, immorality of all kinds, and even weakness and criminality are certainly misguided. Surely the environmental conditions found in childhood and youth are an influence of power. But the fact remains that every normal soul has its free agency and the power to row against the current and to lift itself to new planes of activity and thought and development. Man can transform himself. Man must transform himself.”
| “The Abundant Life,” Ensign, October 1985, p. 5
“Humility is teachableness – an ability to realize that all virtues and abilities are not concentrated in one’s self. . . . Humility is never accusing nor contentious. . . . Humility is repentant and seeks not to justify its follies. It is forgiving others in the realization that there may be errors of the same kind or worse chalked up against itself. . . . Humility makes no bid for popularity and notoriety; demands no honors. . . . It is not self-abasement – the hiding in the corner, the devaluation of everything one does or thinks or says, but it is the doing of one’s best in every case and leaving of one’s acts, expressions and accomplishments to largely speak for themselves.”
| BYU Speeches of the Year, January 16, 1963
“I am convinced that each of us, at least some time in our lives, must discover the scriptures for ourselves—and not just discover them once, but rediscover them again and again”
| “How Rare a Possession—the Scriptures!” Ensign, Sept. 1976, 4
“I find that when I get casual in my relationships with divinity and when it seems that no divine ear is listening and no divine voice is speaking, that I am far, far away. If I immerse myself in the scriptures the distance narrows and the spirituality returns. I find myself loving more intensely those whom I must love with all my heart and mind and strength, and loving them more, I find it easier to abide their counsel.”
| “What I Hope You Will Teach My Grandchildren and All Others of the Youth of Zion,” address to Seminary and Institute personnel, BYU, 11 July 1966, p. 6.
“Those who keep a book of remembrance are more likely to keep the Lord in remembrance in their daily lives. Journals are a way of counting our blessings and of leaving an inventory of these blessings for our posterity.”
| The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1982, p. 349.
Therefore, whenever anything so basic as the eternal family is imperiled, we have a solemn obligation to speak out, lest there be critical damage to the family institution by those who seem to be deliberately destructive of it.
| 1980–O:4, Spencer W. Kimball, Families Can Be Eternal
“We recommend to all people that there be no undue pollution, that the land be taken care of and kept clean to be productive and to be beautiful.”
| “Why Call Me Lord, Lord, and Do Not the Things Which I Say?” Ensign, May 1975.
“Even though Sexcan be an important and satisfactory part of married life, we must remember that life is not designed just for sex. Even marriage does not make proper certain extremes in sexual indulgence. To the Ephesian saints Paul begged for propriety in marriage: ‘So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.’”
| Miracle of Forgiveness, 73
“You ask, “What is the price of happiness?” First you must live the gospel of Jesus Christ in its purity and simplicity – not a half-hearted compliance, but hewing to the line. And this means an all-out devoted consecration to the great program of salvation and exaltation. An orthodox manner. The second, you must forget yourself and love your companion more than yourself. As you do these things, happiness can be yours in great and never-ending abundance.”
“Marriage can be more an exultant ecstasy than the human mind can conceive. This is within the reach of every couple, every person.”
“Your love, like a flower, must be nourished. There will come a great love and interdependence between you, for your love is a divine one. It is deep, inclusive, comprehensive. It is not like that association of the world which is misnamed love, but which is mostly physical attraction. When marriage is based on this only, the parties soon tire of each other. There is a break and a divorce, and a new, fresher physical attraction comes with another marriage which in turn may last only until it, too, becomes stale.”
| Faith Precedes the Miracle, 130–31
We can also tell that we are making progress by the attention we get from the adversary. Do not falter nor be distressed when others misrepresent us, sometimes deliberately and sometimes in ignorance. This has been the lot of the Lord’s people from the beginning, and it will be no different in our time.
Brothers and sisters, pray for the critics of the Church; love your enemies. Keep the faith. . . . This work, which Satan seeks in vain to tear down, is that which God has placed on earth to lift mankind up!
| “No Unhallowed Hand Can Stop the Work,” Ensign, May 1980, pp. 5-6
“The Lord has blessed us as a people with a prosperity unequaled in times past. The resources that have been placed in our power are good, and necessary to our work here on the earth. But I am afraid that many of us have been surfeited with flocks and herds and acres and barns and wealth and have begun to worship them as false gods, and they have power over us. Do we have more of these good things than our faith can stand? Many people spend most of their time working in the service of a self-image that includes sufficient money, stocks, bonds, investment portfolios, property, credit cards, furnishings, automobiles, and the like to guarantee carnal security throughout, it is hoped, a long and happy life. Forgotten is the fact that our assignment is to use these many resources in our families and quorums to build up the kingdom of God.”
| Ensign, June 1976, p. 4
“Sometimes we have been a bit penurious and figured that we had for breakfast one egg and that cost so many cents and then we give that to the Lord. I think that when we are affluent, as many of us are, that we ought to be very, very generous. . . .I think we should . . . give, instead of the amount saved by our two meals of fasting, perhaps much, much more – ten times more when we are in a position to do it.”
| Conference Report, April 1974, p. 184