“Someone has recently coined what is called the Gadarene Swine Law, which is, simply put, that just because a group is in formation does not mean that it is going in the right direction.”
“No one intends to make serious mistakes. They come when you compromise your standards to be more accepted by others. You be the strong one. You be the leader. Choose good friends and resist peer pressure together.”
| “Making the Right Choices,” General Conference, October 1994
“Real joy comes from righteous character, and that is built from a pattern of consistent righteous decisions. When the things that you acquire are used as tools to help others, they won’t rule your life. Your righteous decisions determine who you are and what is important to you. They make doing the right things easier. For happiness now and throughout your life, steadfastly obey the Lord, no matter what pressure you feel to do otherwise.”
| "Making the Right Decisions"
“Do you know how to recognize a true friend? A real friend loves us and protects us. In recognizing a true friend we must look for two important elements in that friendship: A true friend makes it easier for us to live the gospel by being around him. Similarly, a true friend does not make us choose between his way and the Lord’s way.”
| Ensign, May 1990, p. 40
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
“You can determine the kind of life you will have in your thirties or forties by what you do in your teens.”
| Ensign, Dec. 1995, 66
“The tragic evils of our life are so commonly unintentional. We did not start out for that poor, cheap goal. That aim was not in our minds at all. … Look to the road you are walking on! He who picks up one end of a stick picks up the other. He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to.”
| Living under Tension [1941], 110–11
“Prove your strength, show your independence, by saying no when enticement from peers comes your way. Your own strength will add strength to those who are weak. Your own example will give determination to others”
| Ensign, May 1987, 48
“Everyone needs good friends. Your circle of friends will greatly influence your thinking and behavior, just as you will theirs. When you share common values with your friends, you can strengthen and encourage each other.”
| “Preparation Brings Blessings,” Ensign, May 2010, p. 65
“What the secularists are increasingly demanding, in their disingenuous way, is that religious people, when they act politically, act only on secularist grounds. They are trying to equate acting on religion with establishing religion. And—I repeat—the consequence of such logic is really to establish secularism.”