“Of all treasures of knowledge, the most vital is the knowledge of God.”
Spencer W. Kimball
Quotes By LDS Prophet & Apostle Spencer W. Kimball
“Any excuse, no matter how valid, always weakens character.”
I am confident that when we come back with our body again, there will be no aches or pains. There will be no wrinkles or deformities. I am sure that if we can imagine ourselves at our very best, physically, mentally, spiritually, that is the way we will come back – perhaps not as a child or youth, perhaps in sweet and glorious maturity, but not in age or infirmity or distress or pain or aches.
The meaning of death has not changed. It releases a spirit for growth and development and places a body in the repair shop of Mother Earth, there to be recast, remolded into a perfect body, an immortal glorious temple, clean, whole, perfected, and ready for its occupant for eternity.
| Teaching of Spencer W. Kimball, p. 45
The Sabbath is a holy day in which to do worthy and holy things. Abstinence from work and recreation is important but insufficient. The Sabbath calls for constructive thoughts and acts, and if one merely lounges about doing nothing not he Sabbath, he is breaking it. To observe it, one will be on his knees in prayer, preparing lessons, studying the gospel, meditating, visiting the ill and distressed, sleeping, reading wholesome material, and attending all the meetings of that day to which he is expected. To fail to do these proper things is a transgression on the omission side.
| Ensign, January 1978, p. 4
“Rationalizing is the bringing of ideals down to the level of one’s conduct. Repentance is the bringing of one’s conduct up to the level of his ideals.”
| The Miracle of Forgiveness
“Real, lasting happiness is possible, and marriage can be more an exultant ecstasy than the human mind can conceive. This is within the reach of every couple, every person. . . . It is certain that almost any good man and any good woman can have happiness and a successful marriage if both are willing to pay the price.”
| (1976, September 7). Marriage and divorce. BYU Devotional
“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.
“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.
“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.”
“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
“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
“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
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
“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
“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
“Marriage can be more an exultant ecstasy than the human mind can conceive. This is within the reach of every couple, every person.”
“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
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