LDS Quotes on Love
“My children and I were at her bedside as she slipped peacefully into eternity. As I held her hand and saw mortal life drain from her fingers, I confess I was overcome. Before I married her, she had been the girl of my dreams, to use the words of a song then popular. She was my dear companion for more than two-thirds of a century, my equal before the Lord, really my superior. And now in my old age, she has again become the girl of my dreams.”
“The best and most clear indicator that we are progressing spiritually and coming unto Christ is the way we treat other people.”
“I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.”
“Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.”
| "Finding Joy in the Journey," Conference October 2008
Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
| A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
“Satan, in fact, is the Hebrew word for accuser. Accusatory judgment is Satan’s role, not Christ’s. We do not know the inmost depths of the human heart; it is only revealed by love. But those who condemn have generally little love, and therefore the mystery of the heart which they judge is closed to them. It is impossible to know another completely and not love that person deeply.”
“If you want something to last forever, you treat it differently. you shield it and protect it. You never abuse it. You don’t expose it to the elements. You don’t make it common or ordinary. If it ever becomes tarnished, you lovingly polish it until it gleams like new. It becomes special because you have made it so, and it grows more beautiful and precious as time goes by.”
“For me, one of the greatest miracles of the Christmas story is the love which it reflects. First is the love which our Father in Heaven has for his children: ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ There is the love which the Savior has for each of us. ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ The love of God has been described as ‘the highest, noblest, strongest kind of love’ ‘and the most joyous to the soul.’ This spirit of love and concern seems to be especially strong during the Christmas season.”
| "Christmas is Christlike Love"
“Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love.”
“We don’t become better because we acquire new information. We become better because we acquire better loves. We don’t become what we know. Education is a process of love formation. When you go to a school, it should offer you new things to love.”
| The Road to Character
“Perhaps the world little notes nor long remembers individual acts of kindness – but people do.”
“The point of the law is love. And while obedience is generally better than disobedience, obedience in itself cannot fulfill the law. Only love can fulfill the law. However, love is a curious end for a law. Normally, the point of a law is to compel obedience, not love. As a result, making love the point of the law introduces a kind of know– a kind of torsion or structural catch 22– into the heart of the law itself because love if compelled, is no longer love. Love that is not freely given is not love. Love, as the end of the law, divides the law against itself. Love hamstrings the law in relation to its own assigned end because the law, working to compel obedience, cannot, in this instance, be fulfilled by way of obedience. It can instead, only be fulfilled by love that the law cannot– and must not– compel. The law must compromise its own integrity in order to achieve its assigned end.”
| Future Mormon
“Above all the attributes of godliness and perfection, charity is the one most devoutly to be desired. Charity is more than love, far more; it is everlasting love, perfect love, the pure love of Christ which endureth forever. It is love so centered in righteousness that the possessor has no aim or desire except for the eternal welfare of his own soul and for the souls of those around him.”
| Mormon Doctrine, p. 121
“During the time of courtship, please be emotionally honest in the expression of affection. Sometimes you are not as careful as you might be about when, how, and to whom you express your feelings of affection. You must realize that the desire to express affection can be motivated by other things than true love.”
| “The Gospel and Romantic Love,” Ensign, Oct. 1982, 67.
“When any of you—men or women—are given entrance to the heart of a trusting young friend, you stand on holy ground. In such a place you must be honest with yourself—and with your friend—about love and the expression of its symbols.”
| “The Gospel and Romantic Love,” Ensign, Oct. 1982, 67.
Love is a fundamentally creative act. Love creates and recreates lives and worlds. Love depends on learning how to bend our ordinary lives, like a poet bends and saves ordinary words into creative and morally responsive shapes. In this sense, love is an ethical practice with a deeply aesthetic dimension. Love doesn’t just require justice and mercy, it requires beauty and creativity.
“Love is a fruit in season at all times, and is within the reach of every hand.”
“Reaching out to rescue one another under ANY condition is an eternal measure of love.”
“Indeed, one of the greatest things a father can do for his children is to love their mother. A man who holds the priesthood regards the family as ordained of God. Your leadership of the family is your most important and sacred responsibility. The family is the most important unit in time and in eternity and, as such, transcends every other interest in life.”
“There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved.”
“Why is lust such a deadly sin? Well, in addition to the completely Spirit-destroying impact it has upon our souls, I think it is a sin because it defiles the highest and holiest relationship God gives us in mortality—the love that a man and a woman have for each other and the desire that couple has to bring children into a family intended to be forever. Someone said once that true love must include the idea of permanence. True love endures. But lust changes as quickly as it can turn a pornographic page or glance at yet another potential object for gratification walking by, male or female. True love we are absolutely giddy about—as I am about Sister Holland; we shout it from the housetops. But lust is characterized by shame and stealth and is almost pathologically clandestine—the later and darker the hour the better, with a double-bolted door just in case. Love makes us instinctively reach out to God and other people. Lust, on the other hand, is anything but godly and celebrates self-indulgence. Love comes with open hands and open heart; lust comes with only an open appetite.”
| Place No More For the Enemy of My Soul, April 2010 General Conference
“If our testimonies are strong on this point and if we feel the absolute assurance that God loves us, we will change our questions. We won’t ask, ‘Why did this happen?’ or ‘Why doesn’t God care about me?’ Instead, our questions will become, ‘What can I learn from this experience?’ or ‘How does the Lord want me to handle this?”
| When Times Are Tough: 5 Scriptures That Will Help You Get Through Almost Anything
“God does not look on the outward appearance. I believe that he doesn’t care one bit if we live in a castle or a cottage, if we are handsome or homely, if we are famous or forgotten. Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without compass, God’s love encompasses us completely.”
“We need to be kinder with one another, more gentle and forgiving. We need to be slower to anger and more prompt to help. We need to extend the hand of friendship and resist the hand of retribution. In short, we need to love one another with the pure love of Christ, with genuine charity and compassion and, if necessary, shared suffering, for that is the way God loves us.”
| A More Excellent Way, Conference April 1992
Think the best of each other, especially of those you say you love. Assume the good and doubt the bad.
“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
“The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships.”
“I loved her not for the way she danced with my angels but for the way the sound of her name could silence my demons.”
“Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness.”
“The crowning characteristic of love is always loyalty.”
| (2012, November). The first great commandment. Ensign, 42(11), 83–85.
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
“Berdyaev wrote that ‘one must help others and do good works, not for saving one’s own soul, but for love, for the union of men, for the bringing of their souls together in the kingdom of God. Love for men is a value in itself, the quality of goodness is imminent in it.'”
“Our opportunities to give of ourselves are indeed limitless, but they are also perishable. There are hearts to gladden. There are kind words to say. There are gifts to be given. There are deeds to be done. There are souls to be saved.”
| The Gifts of Christmas, First Presidency Message, December 2003
“Imagine how our own families, let alone the world, would change if we vowed to keep faith with one another, strengthen one another, look for and accentuate the virtues in one another, and speak graciously concerning one another. Imagine the cumulative effect if we treated each other with respect and acceptance, if we willingly provided support. Such interactions practiced on a small scale would surely have a rippling effect throughout our homes and communities and, eventually, society at large.”
| Standing for Something: Ten Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes
“Because love is the great commandment, it ought to be at the center of all and everything we do in our own family, in our Church callings, and in our livelihood. Love is the healing balm that repairs rifts in personal and family relationships. It is the bond that unites families, communities, and nations. Love is the power that initiates friendship, tolerance, civility, and respect. It is the source that overcomes divisiveness and hate. Love is the fire that warms our lives with unparalleled joy and divine hope. Love should be our walk and our talk.”
| The Love of God, Ensign, Nov 2009, 21–24
| ‘Judge not,’ President Monson counsels women
Power, no matter how well-intentioned, tends to cause suffering. Love, being vulnerable, absorbs it. In a point of convergence on a hill called Calvary, God renounced the one for the sake of the other.
| The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey
“People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.”
| “Anyway”
“Your Heavenly Father loves you—each of you. That love never changes. It is not influenced by your appearance, by your possessions, or by the amount of money you have in your bank account. It is not changed by your talents and abilities. It is simply there. It is there for you when you are sad or happy, discouraged or hopeful. God’s love is there for you whether or not you feel you deserve love. It is simply always there.”
“It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”
“The crowning characteristic of love is always loyalty.”
“How much better it would be if all could be more aware of God’s providence and love and express that gratitude to him. Ammon taught, ‘Let us give thanks to (God), for he doth work righteousness forever.’ Our degree of gratitude is a measure of our love for him.”
| "Thanks Be to God"
What we love determines what we seek. What we seek determines what we think and do. What we think and do determines who we are — and who we will become.
“The most important single thing any latter day saint ever does in this world is to marry the right person in the right place and by the right authority.”
“The only way to take sorrow out of death is to take love out of life.”
