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"There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old system, and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new one." - Count Machiavelli (1513)
“Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.” - Victor Hugo
“Personality: If you have anything really valuable to contribute to the world it will come through the expression of your own personality, that single spark of divinity that sets you off and makes you different from every other living creature.” - Bruce Barton
“Technology: What is more difficult, to think of an encampment on the moon or of Harlem rebuilt? Both are now within reach of our resources. Both now depend upon human decision and human will.” - Adlai E. Stevenson
“Why is it that we allow coarse and profane conversation in our environments and why are such educated people so stunted mentally that they let their capacity to communicate grow more and more narrow. Language is like music; we rejoice in beauty, range, and quality in both, and we are demeaned by the repetition of a few sour notes. George Washington set us a good example in this regard. When he learned that some of his officers were given to profanity, he sent a letter to them on July 1, 1776: “The general is sorry to be informed that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing, a vice heretofore little known in an American army, is growing into fashion. He hopes the officers will, by example, as well as influence, endeavor to check it, and that both they and the men will reflect that we can have little hope of the blessing of heaven on our arms if we insult it by our impiety and folly. Added to this, it is a vice so mean and low, without any temptation, that every man of sense and character detests and despises it.’” - David O. McKay
"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal." - Hanna Moore
"Real merit of any kind cannot be long concealed: it will be discovered. It may not always be rewarded as it ought; but it will always be known." - Lord Chesterfield
"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self restraint enough to keep form meddling with them while they do it." - Theodore Roosevelt
"Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all things easy." - Benjamin Franklin
"It's easy to dodge our responsibilities but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities." - Sir Josiah Stamp
“We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same.”
- Carlos Castaneda
"All problems become smaller if you don't dodge them. Touch a thistle timidly and it pricks you; grasp if boldly, and its spines crumble'" - Admiral William F. Halsey
"Whatever action is performed by a great man, common men follow in his footsteps, and whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues." - Bhagvad Gita
"Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns;" - J. M. Clark
"Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him and let him know that you trust him." - Booker T. Washington
"There is no better measure of a person than what he does when he is absolutely free to choose." - Wilma Asknas
"The spirit of service does not come buy assignment. It is a feeling that accompanies a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ." - Boyd K. Packer
"Our homes need to be more Christ-centered. We should spend more time at the temple and less time in the pursuit of pleasure. We should lower the noise level in our homes so that the noise of the world will not overpower the still, small voice of the Holy Ghost. One of our greatest goals as parents should be to enjoy the power and influence of the Holy Ghost in our homes. We should pray and study the scriptures. We could sing the hymns of the Restoration to invite the Holy Ghost into our home. Regular family home evening will also help." - The Unspeakable Gift Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin -GenCnf 4/03
"I wasen't there for the weeds" (Henery B. Iring Sr. When asked how he could maintain a positive attitude after weeding a field of sprayed onions)
Some people live as if there were no day of reckoning. Others waste today’s time with a disabling fear of tomorrow or a paralyzing preoccupation over mistakes of yesterday. Each of us might well heed the words of a poet, as posted on a sundial:
The shadow by my finger cast
Divides the future from the past:
Before it, sleeps the unborn hour,
In darkness, and beyond thy power:
Behind its unreturning line,
The vanished hour, no longer thine:
One hour alone is in thy hands,—
The NOW on which the shadow stands. (elder Russel M Nelon- gen cen 4/05) 14. Henry Van Dyke, .“The Sun-Dial at Wells College,” in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1911), 345. Sundial and poem displayed at Wells College, Aurora, New York.
If we would escape the lusts of the flesh and build for ourselves and our children great and noble characters, we must keep in our minds and in their minds true and righteous principles for our thoughts and their thoughts to dwell upon.
We must not permit our minds to become surfeited with the interests, things, and practices of the world about us. To do so is tantamount to adopting and going along with them, for the experience of the race sustains the conclusion of him who said that—
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, and then embrace. 2
If we would avoid adopting the evils of the world, we must pursue a course which will daily feed our minds with and call them back to the things of the Spirit. President Romney - gen cnf addess 1980
If parents will read from the Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their children, the spirit of that great book will come to permeate our homes and all who dwell therein. The spirit of reverence will increase; mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. The spirit of contention will depart. Parents will counsel their children in greater love and wisdom. Children will be more responsive and submissive to the counsel of their parents. Righteousness will increase. Faith, hope, and charity—the pure love of Christ—will abound in our homes and lives, bringing in their wake peace, joy, and happiness. …
Elder Romney gen cnf 1980
