Ezra Taft Benson
Some men are willing to die for their faith, but they are not willing to fully live for it. Christ both lived and died for us.
Try as you may, you cannot put the Lord in your debt. For every time you try to do His will, He simply pours out more blessings upon you.
The Saints never suffer as the sinners do.
The true scientist no longer attempts to disprove the pull of gravity, or the rotation of the earth, or the motion of heavenly bodies, or the sequence of the seasons, or man's need of food and water, or the function of the heart.
Truth is truth, whether labeled 'science' or 'religion.'
What a gift it would be to receive at Christmastime a greater knowledge of the Lord. What a gift it would be to share that knowledge with others.
I cannot recall a time that I did not believe in Jesus Christ.
Many novels and modern publications are corrupters of morals or distorters of truth.
One of the standards on which your happiness is based, now and in your future, is moral purity.
Communism introduced into the world a substitute for true religion. It is a counterfeit of the gospel plan.
One of Satan's most frequently used deceptions is the notion that the commandments of God are meant to restrict freedom and limit happiness.
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?
Pride is essentially competitive in nature. We pit our will against God's.
Opposition provides choices, and choices bring consequences - good or bad.
I have seen what the days of tribulation can do to people. I have seen hunger stalk the streets of Europe. I have witnessed the appalling, emaciated shadows of human figures. I have seen women and children scavenge army garbage dumps for scraps of food. Those scenes and nameless faces cannot be erased from my memory.
It is a truism that children need more of Mother than of money.
Satan works through human agents.
God our Father, Jesus, our Elder Brother and our Redeemer, and the Holy Ghost, the Testator, are perfect. They know us best and love us most and will not leave one thing undone for our eternal welfare. Should we not love them for it and honor them first?
It is a fundamental truth that the responsibilities of motherhood cannot be successfully delegated. No, not to day-care centers, not to schools, not to nurseries, not to babysitters.
Essentially, pride is a 'my will' rather than 'thy will' approach to life.
The fact that a book or publication is popular does not necessarily make it of value.
No nation which has kept the commandments of God has ever perished, but I say to you that once freedom is lost, only blood - human blood - will win it back.
America is a place of many great events. Here is where Adam dwelt, where the Garden of Eden was located. America was the place of former civilizations, including Adam's, the Jaredites', and Nephites'.
I am a witness to nations and people deprived of their freedom. I was there. I watched that great Iron Curtain drop around nations which formerly had prized their freedom - good people. I was aghast as these were written off by the stroke of a pen.
The great task of life is to learn the will of the Lord and then do it.
Pride is a sin that can readily be seen in others but is rarely admitted in ourselves.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.
When I think of how we show faith, I cannot help but think of the example of my own father. I recall vividly how the spirit of missionary work came into my life. I was about thirteen years of age when my father received a call to go on a mission.
Our enmity toward God takes on many labels, such as rebellion, hard-heartedness, stiff-neckedness, unrepentant, puffed up, easily offended, and sign seekers. The proud wish God would agree with them. They aren't interested in changing their opinions to agree with God's.
The Lord clearly defined the roles of providing for and rearing a righteous posterity. In the beginning, Adam, not Eve, was instructed to earn the bread by the sweat of his brow.
In a home where there is an able-bodied husband, he is expected to be the breadwinner.
Are you honest with the Lord in the payment of your tithes? Living this divine law will bring both spiritual and material blessings.
Surely no child should fear his own father - especially a priesthood father. A father's duty is to make his home a place of happiness and joy.
Go on daddy-daughter dates and father-and-sons' outings with your children. As a family, go on campouts and picnics, to ball games and recitals, to school programs, and so forth. Having Dad there makes all the difference.
The earth was cursed for Adam's sake. Work is our blessing, not our doom. God has a work to do, and so should we.
Retirement from work has depressed many a man and hastened his death.
The great commandment of life is to love the Lord.
To love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength is all-consuming and all-encompassing. It is no lukewarm endeavor.
Our desires, be they spiritual or temporal, should be rooted in a love of the Lord.
Our mothers put God first when they fill their highest mission within the walls of their own homes.
A young man who knows and loves the Book of Mormon, who has read it several times, who has an abiding testimony of its truthfulness, and who applies its teachings will be able to stand against the wiles of the devil and will be a mighty tool in the hands of the Lord.
Was it not through pride that the devil became the devil? Christ wanted to serve. The devil wanted to rule.
Faith is the foundation upon which a godlike character is built. It is a prerequisite for all other virtues.
Since the beginning, a woman's first and most important role has been ushering into mortality spirit sons and daughters of our Father in Heaven.
In the beginning, Adam was instructed to earn the bread by the sweat of his brow - not Eve. Contrary to conventional wisdom, a mother's place is in the home!
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.
The seeds of divorce are often sown and the problems of children begin when Mother works outside the home.
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.
Every Latter-day Saint should love the inspired Constitution of the United States - a nation with a spiritual foundation and a prophetic history - which nation the Lord has declared to be his base of operations in these latter days.