Marvin J. Ashton Quotes

Difficulties can be a valuable tool in our pursuit of perfection. Adversity need have no necessary connection with failure.

The practice of thrift is not outdated. We must discipline ourselves to live within our incomes even if it means going without or making do. The wise person can distinguish...between basic needs and extravagant wants. Some find budgeting extremely painful, but I promise you, it is never fatal.

Proper communication will always be a main ingredient for building family solidarity and permanence.

Everything is given by God. All talent, creativity, ability, insight, and strength comes from him. In our own strength we can do nothing.

Striving can be more important than arriving.

One little lie or dishonest act leads to another until the perpetrator is caught in the web of deceit.

Sometimes when family members least deserve love, they need it the most.

God's love for us is constant and will not diminish, but he cannot rescue us from the painful results that are caused by wrong choices.

One who practices pure religion soon discovers it is more rewarding to lift a man up than to hold him down.

Through microscopic examination one can find in almost every life incidents or traits that can be destructive when they are magnified.

How damaging is a habit that permits faultfinding, character assassination, and the sharing of malicious rumors! Gossip and caustic comments often create chains of contention.

If he could have his way, Satan would distract us from our heritage. He would have us become involved in a million and one things in this life-probably none of which is very important in the long run-to keep us from concentrating on the things that are really important, particularly the reality that we are God's children. He would like us to forget about home and family values. He'd like to keep us so busy with comparatively insignificant things that we don't have time to make the effort to understand where we came from, whose children we are, and how glorious our ultimate homecoming can be!

Procrastination is a deadly weapon of human progress.

A willingness to vocalize feelings. How important it is to be willing to voice one's thoughts and feelings. Yes, how important it is to be able to converse on the level of each family member. Too often we are inclined to let family members assume how we feel toward them. Often wrong conclusions are reached. Very often we could have performed better had we known how family members felt about us and what they expected.

How comfortable some of us become as we nestle in the web of procrastination. It is a false haven of rest for those who are content to live without purpose, commitment, or self-discipline.

Someone has said, “A friend is a person who is willing to take me the way I am.” Accepting this as one definition of the word, may I quickly suggest that we are something less than a real friend if we leave a person the same way we find him.

We are poor in character when we think getting by is a substitute for doing our best.

Victories in life come through our ability to work around and over the obstacles that cross our path. We grow stronger as we climb our own mountains.

Constant criticism can wear one down and weaken knees.

Some of us are inclined to look to the weaknesses and shortcomings of others in order to expand our own comfort zone.

Still, small heavenly voices penetrate the heart with their gentle, convincing declarations… Most often, hope, encouragement, and direction come from a soft, piercing voice. Small voices are heard only by those who are willing to listen.

Often parents communicate most effectively with their children by the way they listen to and address each other. Their conversations showing gentleness and love are heard by our ever-alert, impressionable children.

There is a great need today for all mankind to heed the plea to cease to find fault one with another. Some of us are so accustomed to wearing faultfinding spectacles that we cannot see past them. We need to open our eyes and ears and look for the good and the blessings around us.