Top 174 Quotes & Sayings by Boyd K. Packer - Page 2

In or out of marriage, abortion is not an individual choice. At a minimum, three lives are involved.

He who conquers others is strong; he who conquers himself is mighty" - Lao-tsu One who can control his thoughts has conquered himself.

There is little to be gained by seeking after the mysteries, for there is hardly time in a lifetime to master the plain and precious things.

Those who speak of blind obedience may appear to know many things, but they do not understand the doctrines of the gospel. There is an obedience that comes from a knowledge of the truth that transcends any external form of control. We are not obedient because we are blind, we are obedient because we can see.

The flak is always the heaviest closest to the target

The Lord will bless us as we attend to the sacred ordinance work of the temples. Blessings there will not be limited to our temple service. We will be blessed in all of our affairs.

Thoughts, like water, will stay on course if we make a place for them to go. As you learn to control your thoughts, you can gain courage, conquer fear and have a happy life.

Teenagers also sometimes think, 'What's the use? The world will soon be blown all apart and come to an end.' That feeling comes from fear, not from faith. No one knows the hour or the day (see D&C 49:7), but the end cannot come until all of the purposes of the Lord are fulfilled. Everything that I have learned from the revelations and from life convinces me that there is time and to spare for you to carefully prepare for a long life.

Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.

No teaching is equal, more spiritually rewarding, or more exalting than that of a mother teaching her children.

Peace can be settled in the heart of each who turns to the scriptures and unlocks the promises of protection and redemption that are taught therein.

We accept the responsibility to preach the gospel to every person on earth. And if the question is asked, you mean you are out to convert the entire world? The answer is, 'yes'. We will try to reach every living soul.

You always hold the key of repentance to unlock the prison door. If they throw the word diversity at you, grab hold of it and say, "I am already diverse, and I intend to stay diverse." If the word is tolerance, grab that one, too, saying, "I expect you to be tolerant of my lifestyle-obedience, integrity, abstinence, repentance." If the word is choice, tell them you choose good, old-fashioned morality.

We are not free to break our covenants and escape the consequences.

Progression: you can start from where you are.

Some suffer from real misfortunes. Sadly, others only imagine that they do.

I have a hard time with historians because they idolize the truth. The truth is not uplifting; it destroys. I could tell most of the secretaries in the church office building that they are ugly and fat. That would be the truth, but it would hurt and destroy them. Historians should tell only that part of the truth that is inspiring and uplifting.

Every soul confined in a prison of sin, guilt, or perversion has a key to the gate. The key is labeled “repentance.” If you know how to use this key, the adversary cannot hold you.

Those who choose, conduct, present, and accompany the music may influence the spirit of reverence ... more than a speaker does.

Music can set an atmosphere of worship which invites [the] spirit of revelation, of testimony.

I bear witness of the power of the priesthood given to the Church to protect us and guide us. And because we have that, we have no fear of the future. Fear is the opposite of faith. We move forward, certain that the Lord will watch over us, particularly in the family.

The gospel stands as true for those who reject it as for those who accept it - both will be judged by it.

When music is presented which, however appropriate for other occasions, does not fit the Sabbath, much is lost. . . . The Spirit does not ratify speech nor confirm music which lacks spiritual substance.

Ordinances and covenants become our credentials for admission into His presence. To worthily receive them is the quest of a lifetime; to keep them thereafter is the challenge of mortality.

We could be like a father determined to provide everything for his family. He devotes every energy to that end and succeeds; only then does he discover that what they needed most, to be together as a family, has been neglected. And he reaps sorrow in place of contentment.

One thing is very clear: the safest place and the best protection against the moral and spiritual diseases is a stable home and family. This has always been true; it will be true forever. We must keep that foremost in our minds. The scriptures speak of 'the shield of faith wherewith,' the Lord said, 'ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked' (D&C 27:17). This shield of faith is best fabricated in a cottage industry. While the shield can be polished in classes in the Church and in activities, it is meant to be handcrafted in the home and fitted to each individual.

If you understand the great plan of happiness and follow it, what goes on in the world will not determine your happiness.

In all that we do in the Church, we need to provide the way, as leaders, for parents and children to have time together as families.

The guilt that accompanies mistakes can be washed away.

Happiness will depend on what each of us does with what each has, what we learn from what we do, and what we do thereafter.

Most of what we acquire materially is found to not be worth what we must pay spiritually.

Our competition in life is solely with our old self.

That historian or scholar who delights in pointing out the weaknesses and frailties of present or past leaders destroys faith. A destroyer of faith — particularly one within the Church, and more particularly one who is employed specifically to build faith — places himself in great spiritual jeopardy. He is serving the wrong master, and unless he repents, he will not be among the faithful in the eternities. Do not spread disease germs!

Perhaps no other book has been denounced so vigorously by those who have never read it as has the Book of Mormon.

Often, very often, we are punished as much by our sins as we are for them.

If you need a transfusion of spiritual strength then just ask for it. We call that Prayer. Prayer is powerful spiritual medicine.

Parents now are concerned about the moral and spiritual diseases. These can have terrible complications when standards and values are abandoned. We must all take protective measures.

An organist who has the sensitivity to quietly play prelude music from the hymnbook tempers our feelings and causes us to go over in our minds the lyrics which teach the peaceable things of the kingdom. If we will listen, they are teaching the gospel, for the hymns of the Restoration are, in fact, a course in doctrine!

There are spiritual and physical laws to obey if we are to be happy.

Mature love has a bliss not even imagined by newlyweds.

The end of all activity in the church is to see that a man and a woman with their children are happy at home, sealed for eternity.

Without a knowledge of the gospel plan, transgression seems natural, innocent, even justified.

There are many things about living the gospel of Jesus Christ that cannot be measured by that which is counted or charted in records of attendance.

Freedom is not a self-preserving gift. It has to be earned, and it has to be protected.

Parents are with their children almost constantly and can observe when they are ready to be instructed. From questions or behavior or because of experiences in their own lives, they can sense that it is time to teach. Parents must know when the time for the lesson is now, right now, for their children are ready for it.

Temple. One other word is equal in importance to a Latter-day Saint. Home. Put the words holy temple and home together, and you have described the house of the Lord!

Take hold of your life and order yourself to be valiant.

Happily ever after never happens in the second act.

Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.

Get to Know Yourself Once you start getting acquainted with yourselves, finding out who you are and where you belong and who your relatives are, spiritually speaking as well as in the earthly frame of reference, you come to the astounding, overwhelming realization that you are a child of God-that you belong to Him, that He is your Father. He is our Father.

Do not ever disturb prelude music for others, for reverence is essential to revelation

Don't live so that your children go unled because of habits that leave you uninspired.

Somewhere there is a message in the protest of the man who said, "You can't tell me that worry doesn't help. The things I worry about never happen."

I'm not ashamed to say that I want to be good. And I've found in my life that it has been critically important to establish this intention between me and the Lord so that I knew that HE knew which way I committed my agency. I went before Him and said, 'I'm not neutral, and you can do with me what you want. If you need my vote-it's there. I don't care what you do with me and you don't have to take anything from me because I give it to you-everything. All I own. All I am.' And THAT has made all the difference.

How grateful we are for you, our youth.

Throughout your life there may be times when you have gone places you never should have gone and done things you never should have done. If you will turn away from sin, you will be able one day to know the peace that comes from following the pathway of complete repentance.

If you have seen one of the temples at night, fully lighted, you know what an impressive sight that can be. The house of the Lord, bathed in light, standing out in the darkness, becomes symbolic of the power and the inspiration of the gospel of Jesus Christ standing as a beacon in a world that sinks ever further into spiritual darkness.

The Word of Wisdom does not promise you perfect health, but it teaches how to keep the body you were born with in the best condition and your mind alert to delicate spiritual promptings.

The Spirit is a voice that one feels more than hears.

Repentance is the key with which we can unlock the prison from inside. We hold that key within our hands, and agency is ours to use it.