Harold B. Lee Quotes (16 Quotes)

I thank the Lord that I may have passed some of the tests, but maybe there will have to be more before I shall have been polished to do all that the Lord would have me do. Sometimes when the veil has been very thin, I have thought that if the struggle had been still greater that maybe then there would have been no veil.

The recurrence of fundamentals is essential to perpetuity.

A truth of the gospel is not a truth until you live it. You do not really believe in tithing until you pay it. The word of wisdom to you is not a truth of the gospel until you keep it. The Sabbath day is not a holy day unless you observe it.... A friend is not a friend unless you defend him.

It isn't the Lord who withholds himself from us. It is we who withhold ourselves from him because of our failure to keep his commandments.

How glorious and near to the angels is youth that is clean. This youth has joy unspeakable here and eternal happiness hereafter. Sexual purity is youth's most precious possession. It is the foundation of all righteousness.

One of the greatest business leaders in America today, James F. Oates of the Equitable Life, said this about factors which he said were necessary to develop us into real eminence in any field. He said Whatever may be the nature of our work, or the character of our own vocational activity, eminence always involves the following And then he named four factors, and I want you to mark them. 1. You must have the determination to excel. 2. You must have the willingness And I want you to mark this. to pay the price, to study, to live through disappointments with optimism, and to accept the sacrifices necessary to succeed. Now, do you get the significance of that 3. You must have the steadfast pursuit of purpose, doing the work day after day, week after week, yes, year after year, whether you feel like doing it or not. 4. You must have pride and faith in the virtue of your calling. That is to say, spiritual motivation. (James F. Oates, Address before the YMCA at Los Angeles, California, April 15, 1960.)

The heavy hand of death becomes lighter the pall of gloom is pierced and throbbing wounds are soothed as faith lifts us beyond the sordid trials and sorrows of mortal life and gives a vision of brighter days and more joyous prospects, as has been revealed, when 'God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away (Rev. 214) through the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. With such faith and understanding you who may be called upon to mourn can sing as it has been written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is thy sting O grave, where is thy victory' (1 Cor. 1554-55.)

There is only one day that you and I have to live and that's today. There is nothing we can do about yesterday except repent, and there may be no tomorrows. The thing for us to do when we arise from our beds as God gives us a new day, is to pray that whatever comes to our hands, we will do it to the best of our ability.

The greatest waste in all the world is living below our potential.

The spirit, if it could be seen with mortal eyes, would appear in bodily shape like a full-grown person with individual endowments that make it a counter-part of the body in which it resides, 'that which is temporal in the likeness of that which is spiritual.' (DC 772.) It was that which came from God and entered at birth into the infant body prepared by its mortal parents. The spirit was of the 'Lord from heaven.' The physical body was 'of the earth, earthy,' (2 Cor. 1547) or in other words, composed of the elements of which the things in the physical world are composed.

Just as a flood-lighted temple is more beautiful in a severe storm or in a heavy fog, so the gospel of Jesus Christ is more glorious in times of inward storm and of personal sorrow and tormenting conflict.

... the sin of abortion, or the destruction of unborn children lies somewhere a close kin to the crime of destroying human life and certainly to be condemned.

You must learn to walk to the edge of the light, and perhaps a few steps into the darkness, and you will find that the light will appear and move ahead of you.

You cannot light a fire in another soul unless it is burning in your own soul.

In his book Stand Ye In Holy Places, President Harold B. Lee wrote that one is converted when his eyes see what he ought to see, his ears hear what he ought to hear and his heart understands what he ought to understand. 'And what he ought to see, hear and understand is trutheternal truthand then practice it. That is conversion,' he wrote.

It is not the function of religion to answer all the questions about Gods moral government of the universe, but to give us courage through faith to go on in the face of questions to which we find no answer in our present status.