Quotes By LDS Prophet & Apostle Spencer W. Kimball
“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
“The height of a man’s success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment. There is no other limitation in either direction. And this law is the expression of eternal justice. He who cannot establish a dominion over himself will have no dominion over others, he who masters himself shall be king.”
| Improvement Era, June 1966, p. 525.
“The union of the sexes, husband and wife (and only husband and wife), was for the principal purpose of bringing children into the world. Sexual experiences were never intended by the Lord to be a mere plaything or merely to satisfy passions and lusts. We know of no directive from the Lord that proper sexual experience between husbands and wives need be limited totally to the procreation of children, but we find much evidence from Adam until now that no provision was ever made by the Lord for indiscriminate sex”
| "The Lord’s Plan for Men and Women,” Ensign, Oct. 1975, 4
“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.
President Spencer W. Kimball cautioned, however, that if we merely lounge about doing nothing on the Sabbath, we are not keeping the day holy. The Sabbath calls for constructive thoughts and acts.
| (See Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball [2006], p. 170) — Gospel Principles, p. 141
“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
“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
“Let us get our instruments tightly strung and our melodies sweetly sung. Let us not die with our music still in us. Let us rather use this precious mortal probation to move confidently and gloriously upward toward the eternal life which God our Father gives to those who keep His commandments.”
| The Miracle of Forgiveness (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1969), 17.