Brigham Young

“ I like to be pleased myself; I like to be filled with joy, but if I cannot be filled with joy and gladness that is full of meat and marrow, or, in other words, full of meaning and sense, I would rather retain my gravity. ”

“ We ought not to speak lightly of and undervalue the life we now enjoy, but so dispose of each passing day that the hours and minutes are spent in doing good, or at least doing no harm, in making ourselves useful, in improving our talents and abilities to do more good, cultivating the principle of kindness to every being pertaining to our earthly sphere, learning their uses and how to apply them to produce the greatest, possible amount of good ”

“ They are the children of God, the brethren and sisters of Jesus Christ, of the same family and descent. My best efforts are too feeble to portray before you the worth of the life we now possess. Probably there is not a single person upon the earth that properly magnifies his life to the fullest extent, or, as it was designed he should, to prepare him to dwell with God and holy angels. Many passages of Scripture can be produced showing how the ancients complained of the folly and wickedness of mankind, but they never undervalued life. ”

“ When we look upon the human face we look upon the image of our Father and God; there is a divinity in each person male and female; there is the heavenly, there is the divine and with this is amalgamated the human, the earthly, the weaker portions of our nature, and it is the human that shrinks in the presence of the divine, and this accounts for our manfearing spirit, and it is all there is of it. ”

“ I am rejoiced, my brethren, when I hear the Elders of Israel speak as they did this morning. I care little for a man's language, if his spirit proves to me that he has the love of God within him. Brother Erastus Snow remarked that the time would come when the law of God would be written on the hearts of the people. ”

“ The first life must be magnified as a preparatory step to the enjoyment of the second. Those immortal and glorified beings that inherit higher spheres understood this principle, have magnified their mortal existence and passed on to immortality ”

“ No, we gather the goats with the sheep. We gather people here, and then the most trifling incidents that may occur in their lives, contrary to their wishes, will turn them aside, and they will forsake their religion and their God. ”

“ I am often full of joy and gladness, and were I to give way to the promptings of my nature at such times, it would lead to unreasonable levity which would be a source of mortification and sorrow to me. ”

“ I have been highly gratified at the few remarks I have heard this morning from the brethren who are about to leave us to fulfil their Missions. They have a great deal of talk in them, and they will soon be in their fields of labour where they can free their minds. ”