I never travel across this great nation without experiencing a feeling of gratitude and thanksgiving for all that we have and are. As I see its broad fruitful farms, its humming factories, its gleaming cities, certainly it is easy to realize that we have achieved unequaled material progress in this great country.

Ezra Taft Benson

The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.

Ezra Taft Benson

faith men people

Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right.

Ezra Taft Benson

communication humility kids

When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives. Our love of the Lord will govern the claims for our affection, the demands on our time, the interests we pursue, and the order of our priorities.

Ezra Taft Benson

god love life

Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He can deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their soals, and pour out peace.

Ezra Taft Benson

blessing opportunity life

You are free to choose, but you are not free to alter the consequences of your decisions.

Ezra Taft Benson

consequence decision

The moment you begin a serious study of the scriptures, you will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the straight and narrow path.... When you begin to hunger & thirst after those words, you will find life in greater abundance.

Ezra Taft Benson

deception temptation path

Nothing will surprise us more than when we get to heaven and see the Father and realize how well we know Him and how familiar His face is to us.

Ezra Taft Benson

faces heaven father

Some of the greatest battles you will face will be fought within the silent chambers of your own soul.

Ezra Taft Benson

hard-times soul life

Could many of our ills today have resulted from our failure to train a strong citizenry from the only source we have - the boys and girls of each community? Have they grown up to believe in politics without principle, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without effort, wealth without work, business without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice?

Ezra Taft Benson

girl strong integrity

With pride, there are many curses. With humility, there come many blessings.

Ezra Taft Benson

pride humility blessing

The way to feel better about your own situation is to improve someone else’s circumstances.

Ezra Taft Benson

feel-better circumstances way

When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power.

Ezra Taft Benson

quests spiritual inspirational

Pride... limits or stops progression. The proud are not easily taught. They won't change their minds to accept truths, because to do so implies they have been wrong.

Ezra Taft Benson

proud pride mind

Thoughts lead to acts, acts lead to habits, habits lead to character - and our character will determine our eternal destiny.

Ezra Taft Benson

destiny eternity character

Each day the forces of evil and the forces of good enlist new recruits. Each day we personally make many decisions showing the cause we support. The final outcome is certain---the forces of righteousness will win. But what remains to be seen is where each of us personally, now and in the future, will stand in this battle---and how tall we will stand. Will we be true to our last days and fulfill our foreordained missions?

Ezra Taft Benson

decision evil winning

No man is truly free who is in financial bondage. 'Think what you do when you run in debt', said Benjamin Franklin, 'you give another power over your liberty.'

Ezra Taft Benson

religious running men

You are the one who must decide whose thoughts you will entertain. You are free to choose-but you are not free to alter the consequences of those choices. You will be what you think about what you consistently allow to occupy the stage of your mind.

Ezra Taft Benson

adversity choices thinking

An honorable man or woman is one who is truthful; free from deceit; above cheating, lying, stealing, or any form of deception. An honorable man or woman is one who learns early that one cannot do wrong and feel right. A man's character is judged on how he keeps his word and his agreements.

Ezra Taft Benson

character lying cheating

The Declaration of Independence was to set forth the moral justification of a rebellion against a long-recognized political tradition - the divine right of kings. At issue was the fundamental question of whether men's rights were God-given or whether these rights were to be dispensed by governments to their subjects. This document proclaimed that all men have certain inalienable rights. In other words, these rights came from God.

Ezra Taft Benson

kings god men

If we do not feel like praying, then we should pray until we do feel like praying.

Ezra Taft Benson

should praying feels