George Albert Smith Quotes

If we are not more perfect in our lives, if we are not more righteous than those who are not of our faith we will be behind them in receiving the blessings of our Heavenly Father; but if we obey His commandments, if we keep ourselves clean, pure and unspotted from the sins of the world, His power will rest upon us, and the virtues of the third and fourth generations of the Church will be builded upon by following generations, and the purity of their lives will establish a race that will people the earth.

You cannot drive people to do things which are right, but you can love them into doing them, if your example is of such a character that they can see you mean what you say.

There are two influences ever present in the world. One is constructive and elevating and comes from our Heavenly Father; the other is destructive and debasing and comes from Lucifer. We have our agency and make our own choice in life subject to these unseen powers. There is a division line well defined that separates the Lord's territory from Lucifer's. If we live on the Lord's side of the line Lucifer cannot come there to influence us, but if we cross the line into his territory we are in his power. By keeping the commandments of the Lord we are safe on His side of the line, but if we disobey His teachings we voluntarily cross into the zone of temptation and invite the destruction that is ever present there. Knowing this, how anxious we should always be to live on the Lord's side of the line.

I am saying to you that to me the Constitution of the United States is just as much from my Heavenly Father as the Ten Commandments

Why was it necessary for the flood to come? Why did the Lord permit the cities of the plains to be destroyed by fire? It was because the people would not take advantage of their opportunities. They were not only wasting their lives here upon the earth but were also bringing into the world another generation which would follow their bad example. . . . The cities of the plains were burned that their wickedness might not continue to jeopardize other communities and children as yet unborn.

Many have belittled Joseph Smith, but those who have will be forgotten in the remains of Mother Earth, and the odor of their infamy will ever be with them, but honor, majesty, and fidelity to God, exemplified by Joseph Smith and attached to his name, will never die.

We may have given to us, in this life, a few things that will give us satisfaction, temporally; but the things that are eternal, the things that are "worth while", are those eternal things that we reach out for, and prepare ourselves to receive, and lay hold of by the effort that we individually make.