Ezra Taft Benson Quotes
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When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives. Our love of the Lord will govern the claims for our affection, the demands on our time, the interests we pursue, and the order of our priorities.
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It is a truism that children need more of Mother than of money.
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The stage, the screen, the novel, casual conversation, the street discussion, and too often the fireside intimacies are punctuated with blasphemy, to which may be added, as of the same nature, coarse, ribald jokes, foul stories, and low small talk. Some would have us believe that profanity is a sign of masculinity and emotion maturity.
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Our Father in Heaven planned the coming forth of the Founding Fathersand their form of government as the necessary great prologue leading to the restoration of the gospel... America, the land of liberty, was to be the Lord's latter-day base of operations for His restored church.
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We will not know Him, until we become like him.
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We live in a day of slick, quiet and clever sins.
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A positive self-image has little relationship to our material circumstances.
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Those who are heavy-laden with despair should come unto the Lord.
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Our great Constitution has been beaten and torn until now it hangs by a single thread, and that thread is our franchise to vote.
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Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can.
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Today, with the abundance of books available, it is the mark of a truly educated man to know what not to read. … Feed only on the best. As John Wesley’s mother counseled him: ‘Avoid whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, takes off your relish for spiritual things, … increases the authority of the body over the mind.
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When individual members and families immerse themselves in the scriptures regularly and consistently, … other areas of activity will automatically come. Testimonies will increase. Commitment will be strengthened. Families will be fortified. Personal revelation will flow.
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It is mother's influence during the crucial formative years that forms a child's basic character. Home is the place where a child learns faith, feels love, and thereby learns from mother's loving example to choose righteousness.
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There are blessings in being close to the soil, in raising your own food even if it is only a garden in your yard and a fruit tree or two. Those families will be fortunate who, in the last days, have an adequate supply of food because of their foresight and ability to produce their own.
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Daily, constantly, we choose by our desires, our thoughts, and our actions whether we want to be blessed or cursed, happy or miserable.
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Yes, it is the precepts of men versus the revealed word of God. The more we follow the word of God the less we are deceived, while those who follow the wisdom of men are deceived the most.
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One sure way we can determine whether we are on the strait and narrow path is that we will possess the Spirit of the Lord in our lives. Having the Holy Ghost brings forth certain fruits. . . . The most important thing in our lives is the Spirit. I have always felt that. We must remain open and sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Ghost in all aspects of our lives.
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Freedom is an eternal principle. Heaven disapproves of force, coercion and intimidation. Only a free people can be truly a happy people.
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Would we not do well to have the pleasing of God as our motive rather than to try to elevate ourselves above our brother and outdo another?
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Some prideful people are not so concerned as to whether their wages meet their needs as they are that their wages are more than someone else’s. Their reward is being a cut above the rest. This is the enmity of pride.
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I wish that every Latter-day Saint could say and mean it with all his heart: 'I'll go where you want me to go. I'll say what you want me to say. I'll be what you want me to be'. If we could do that, we would be assured of the maximum happiness here and exaltation in the celestial kingdom of God hereafter.
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Without Christ there would be no Christmas and without Christ there can be no fulness of JOY.
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The Declaration of Independence was to set forth the moral justification of a rebellion against a long-recognized political tradition - the divine right of kings. At issue was the fundamental question of whether men's rights were God-given or whether these rights were to be dispensed by governments to their subjects. This document proclaimed that all men have certain inalienable rights. In other words, these rights came from God.
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Retirement from work has depressed many a man and hastened his death.