Boyd K. Packer Quotes

The gospel teaches us to be happy, to have faith rather than fear, to find hope and overcome despair, to leave darkness and turn toward the light of the everlasting gospel.

You ought to know that the Lord loves you. He will make that known to you, and it will be a very private and individual experience, something you cannot explain to anyone else.

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 rapid, sweeping deterioration of values is characterized by a preoccupation-even an obsession-with the procreative act. Abstinence before marriage and fidelity within it are openly scoffed at-marriage and parenthood ridiculed as burdensome, unnecessary. Modesty, a virtue of a refined individual or society, is all but gone.

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

Those who will repent and forsake sin will find that His merciful arm is outstretched still. Those who listen to and heed His words and the words of His chosen servants will find peace and understanding even in the midst of great heartache and sorrow. The result of His sacrifice is to free us from the effects of sin, that all may have guilt erased and feel hope.

If you stumble, rise up, go on.

Life moves all too fast. When you feel weak, discouraged, depressed, or afraid, open the Book of Mormon and read.

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.

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

The Atonement has practical, personal, everyday value; apply it in your life. It can be activated with so simple a beginning as prayer.

To suffer some anxiety, some depression, some disappointment, even some failure is normal.

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

Our whole social order could self-destruct over the obsession with freedom disconnected from responsibility; where choice is imagined to be somehow independent of consequences.

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.

Teach yourself and teach your families about the gift of the Holy Ghost and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. You will do no greater eternal work than within the walls of your own home.

Tolerance is a virtue, but, like all virtues, when exaggerated it transforms itself into a vice.

Despite the opposition, trials, and temptations, you need not fail or fear.

The ultimate effort of everything in the Church is to the end that a father and a mother and their children can be happy at home. If they are happy at home, they are spiritually prepared for whatever should be ahead of them in the world.

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 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.

I counsel our children to do their critical studying in the early hours of the morning when they're fresh and alert, rather than to fight physical weariness and mental exhaustion at night. I've learned the power of the dictum, "Early to bed, early to rise." When I'm under pressure, you won't find me burning the midnight oil. I'd much rather be in bed early and getting up in the wee hours of the morning.

The flak is always the heaviest closest to the target

The voice of the Spirit is described in the scriptures as being neither loud nor harsh, not a voice of thunder, neither a voice of great tumultuous noise, but rather as still and small, of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it can pierce even the very soul and cause the heart to burn. The Spirit does not get our attention by shouting.

Arms now empty will be filled and hearts now hurting from broken dreams and yearning will be healed.

One who can control his thoughts has conquered himself.

Devotion to the family and devotion to the Church are not different and separate things.

Latter-day Saints are not obedient because they are compelled to be obedient. They are obedient because they know certain spiritual truths and have decided, as an expression of their own individual agency, to obey the commandments of God. . . . We are not obedient because we are blind, we are obedient because we can see

There's no credit buying on eternal things, none at all. Anything that is worthwhile has to be paid for in advance.

However common irreverence and profanity become, they are nonetheless wrong

Prayer is your personal key to heaven.

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.

It is in the ordinances of the temple that we are placed under covenant to Him….[If] we will enter into our covenants without reservation or apology, the Lord will protect us. We will receive inspiration sufficient for the challenges of life.

Faith, to be faith, must center around something that is not known. Faith, to be faith, must go beyond that for which there is confirming evidence. Faith, to be faith, must go into the unknown. Faith, to be faith, must walk to the edge of the light, and then a few steps into the darkness. If everything has to be known, if everything has to be explained, if everything has to be certified, then there is no need for faith. Indeed, there is no room for it.

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!

It was meant to be that life would be a challenge. To suffer some anxiety, some depression, some disappointment, even some failure is normal. Teach our members that if they have a good, miserable day once in a while, or several in a row, to stand steady and face them. Things will straighten out. There is great purpose in our struggle in life.

In many places it is literally not safe physically for youngsters to go to school. And in many schools, and its becoming almost generally true, it is spiritually unsafe to attend public schools. Look back over the history of education to the turn of the century and the beginning of the educational philosophies, pragmatism and humanism were the early ones, and they branched out into a number of other philosophies which have led us now into a circumstance where our schools are producing the problems that we face.

If you are burdened with depressing feelings of guilt or disappointment, of failure or shame, there is a cure.

It has to be an awfully good meeting to beat having no meeting at all.

Keep the fire of your testimony of the restored gospel and your witness of our Redeemer burning so brightly that our children can warm their hands by the fire of your faith.

If you have stumbled or even been lost for a time, you can move forward with faith and not wander to and fro in the world any longer.

You may in time of trouble think that you are not worth saving because you have made mistakes, big or little, and you think you are now lost. That is never true! Only repentance can heal what hurts. But repentancecan heal what hurts, no matter what it is.

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.

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!

Mature love has a bliss not even imagined by newlyweds.

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.

Hit the 'delete' button when you have unrighteous thoughts.

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.