Welcome to our collection of quotes by Spencer W. Kimball. We hope you enjoy pondering them and please share widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Spencer W. Kimball
Spencer Woolley Kimball (March 28, 1895 – November 5, 1985) was an American business, civic, and religious leader, and was the twelfth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The grandson of early Latter-day Saint apostle Heber C. Kimball, Kimball was born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory. He spent most of his early life in Thatcher, Arizona, where his father, Andrew Kimball, farmed and served as the area's stake president. He served an LDS mission from 1914 to 1916, then worked for various banks in Arizona's Gila Valley as a clerk and bank teller. Kimball later co-founded a business, selling bonds and insurance that, after weathering the Great Depression, became highly successful. Kimball served as a stake president in his hometown from 1938 until 1943, when he was called to serve as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Like most other LDS Church apostles, Kimball traveled extensively to fulfill a wide variety of administrative and ecclesiastical duties. Early in his time as an apostle, Kimball was directed by church president George Albert Smith to spend extra time in religious and humanitarian work with Native Americans, which Kimball did throughout his life. He initiated the Indian Placement Program, which helped many Native American students gain education in the 1960s and 1970s while they stayed with LDS foster families.
In late 1973, following the sudden death of church president Harold B. Lee, Kimball became the twelfth president of the LDS Church, a position he held until his death in 1985. Kimball's presidency was noted for the 1978 announcement ending the restriction on church members of black African descent being ordained to the priesthood or receiving temple ordinances. Kimball's presidency saw large growth in the LDS Church, both in terms of membership and the number of temples. Kimball was the first church president to state publicly that the church expects all able-bodied male members to serve missions in young adulthood, resulting in an increase in missionary service.
We are in a position, as musicians, to touch the souls of those who listen.
God does notice us, and He watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs.
Self-justification is the enemy of repentance.
We know so little. Our judgment is so limited. We judge the Lord's ways from our own narrow view.
In the kingdom, the greater our responsibilities, the greater is our need to see ourselves as servants.
I believe in goals, but I believe that the individual should set his own. Goal setting should cause us to stretch as we make our way.
Some of what you write may be humdrum dates and places, but there will also be rich passages that will be quoted by your posterity.
To hold a testimony, one must bear it often and live worthy of it.
God does watch over us and does notice us, but it is usually through someone else that he meets our needs.
The more we serve our fellowmen in appropriate ways, the more substance there is to our souls.
When one becomes conscious of his great humility, he has already lost it. When one begins boasting of his humility, it has already become pride-the antithesis of humility.
O timid one, awaken, exert yourself, draw back the curtains your training and background have hung over the windows of your soul.
There are great challenges ahead of us, giant opportunities to be met. I welcome that exciting prospect and feel to say to the Lord, humbly, 'Give me this MOUNTAIN,' give me these challenges.
Whatever thing a man sets his heart on...is his god; and if his god doesn't also happen to be the true and living God of Israel that man is laboring in idolatry.
The day obedience becomes a quest and not an irritation is the day you gain power.
To be mediocre, when only application and diligence would have netted superiority, is an error akin to sin.
Let no family go into eternity without having left their memoirs for their children, their grandchildren, and their posterity.
We pray for a generation of girls who will display their wit, their intelligence, their modest charm, their integrity, their loveliness rather than their bodies and their sexual possibilities.
We are greatly conscious of the fact that among the Lamanites -- as well as among all peoples of other countries -- we have a responsibility to see that the gospel touches their hearts and minds and that they understand it.
There is no doubt that the life one leads, and the thoughts one thinks are registered plainly in his face.
Profanity is the effort of a feeble brain to express itself forcibly.
There is never a day in any mans life when repentance is not essential to his well being in eternal progress.
The best way to resist temptation is to avoid it. Prevention is far, far better than repentance.
Time cannot be recycled. When a moment has gone, it is really gone. Wise time management is really wise management of ourselves.
One of the best ways to celebrate righteous history is to make more of it, make more righteous history!
Now is the time to set your life's goals. Now is the time to set your standards firmly and then hold to them throughout your life.
One of Satan's sharpest tools is alcohol, for it blinds and deafens, numbs and manacles, impoverishes and maims, and kills unfortunate victims.
God does watch over us and does notice us, but it usually through someone else that he meets our needs.
Procrastination-thou wretched thief of time and opportunity!
We have always understood that the foundations of the family, as an eternal unit, were laid even before this earth was created! Society without basic family life is without foundation and will disintegrate into nothingness.
Success should not necessarily be gauged by always reaching the goal set, but by progress and attainment.
I am comforted by the assurance that there will be beautiful music in heaven, and for that I am most grateful.
They who get off on tangents and ride hobby horses to death are they who become fanatic. Let them understand that they must be tolerant of others faults but never accept as justifiable their own.
Humility is the beginning virtue of all exaltation.
Music can act upon our senses to produce or induce feelings of reverence, humility, fervor, assurance, or other feelings attuned to the spirit of worship.
I say to everyone within the sound of my voice, 'Do not fail the Lord'. We must accept the truth that the gospel principles are not on trial but that we are.
In my office...I have a little sign and it says, 'Do it!' I suppose if I have learned anything in life, it is that we are to keep moving, keep trying-as long as we breathe! If we do, we will be surprised at how much more can still be done.
Dream beautiful dreams and then work to make those dreams come true.
Leadership is the ability to encourage the best efforts of others in working toward a desirable goal.
The burning bushes, the smoking mountains, ... the Cumorahs, and the Kirtlands were realities; but they were the exceptions... Always expecting the spectacular, many will miss entirely the constant flow of revealed communication.
No amount of rationalizing can change God's laws. No amount of fashion designing can turn immodesty into virtue, and no amount of popularity can change sin into righteousness.
You women are daughters of God. You are precious. You are made in the image of our Heavenly Mother.
Preparedness, when properly pursued, is a way of life, not a sudden, spectacular program.
When a defiled man is born again, his habits are changed, his thoughts cleansed, his attitudes regenerated and elevated, his activities put in total order, and everything about him that was dirty, degenerate or reprobate is washed and made clean.
We ought to encourage our children to know their relatives. We need to talk of them, make effort to correspond with them, visit them, join family organizations, etc.
Impoverished is the life fenced in with few friends.
Modern idols or false gods can take such forms as clothes, homes, businesses, machines, automobiles, pleasure boats, and numerous other material deflectors.
How long has it been since you took your children, whatever their size, in your arms and told them that you love them and are glad that they can be yours forever?
It is vital that we serve each other in the kingdom... So often, our acts of service consist of simple encouragement or of giving ... help with mundane tasks, but what glorious consequences can flow ... from small but deliberate deeds!
One of the most fallacious doctrines originated by Satan and propounded by man is that man is saved alone by the grace of God; that belief in Jesus Christ alone is all that is needed for salvation.
Your faith will perform miracles, especially when you get your hands and feet involved.
Goals are good. Laboring with a distant aim sets the mind in a higher key and puts us at our best.
When you look in the dictionary for the most important word, do you know what it is? It could be remember.Because all of you have made covenants-you know what to do and you know how to do it-our greatest need is to remember.
By one means or another, the swiftest method of rejection of the holy prophets has been to find a pretext, however false or absurd, to dismiss the man so that his message could also be dismissed.
The difficulties and hazards of marriage are greatly increased where backgrounds are different.
A true Latter -- day Saint family is a haven against the storms and struggles of life.
Every Latter-day Saint should sustain, honor, and obey the constitutional law of the land in which he lives.
Always keep good company. Never waste an hour with anyone who doesn't lift you up and encourage you.
There is nothing unholy or degrading about sexuality in itself, for by that means men and women join in a process of creation and in an expression of love.
Every divorce is the result of selfishness on the part of one or both parties to a marriage contract.
Man must live, not only exist; he must do, not merely be; he must grow, not just vegetate.
Above all, I declare that Jesus Christ is the center of our faith; I testify to you that he lives. He leads his Church today; he hears our prayers when we humbly, earnestly, unceasingly seek to know his will, making this, too, a day of miracles and of revelation.
Of all treasures of knowledge, the most vital is the knowledge of God, his existence, powers, love, and promises.
Racial prejudice is of ignorance. There is no place for it.
Learn all you can. Growth comes from setting your goals high and reaching for the stars.
We want you to be ready with your personal storehouses filled with at least a year's supply. You don't argue why it cannot be done; you just plan to organize and get it done.
It is through repentance that the Lord Jesus Christ can work his healing miracle, infusing us with strength when we are weak, health when we are sick, hope when we are downhearted, love when we feel empty, and understanding when we search for truth.
We should be involved in quiet acts of selfless service.
Suffering can make saints of people as they learn patience, long-suffering and self-mastery.
No government may remain strong by ignoring the commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai.
Young men do not usually become inactive in the Church because they are given too many significant things to do.
Do not make small goals because they do not have the magic to stir men's souls.
One can hardly help another to the top of the hill without climbing there himself.
True repentance does not permit repetition.
Sin is the result of deep and unmet needs.